Nick Broda's last option
by WCTsummer
Summary: Nick is forced to enroll at Hogwarts in his third year. After speaking parseltongue his whole life, Nick feels rather unprepared for an English only, Parselmouths-are-the-route-off-all-evil school. Lucky for him, firsty Luna Lovegood is there to talk to and the twins pull him into mischief and mayhem.OC
1. Chapter 1

Nick Broda's last option Chapter 1

*******Hello readers! Before you go on to read, it'**s worth noting that the amazing** Poetic Devices** has had a huge hand in editing this project and it really wouldn't be what it is today with out them! I could not be more grateful for all the hours that have been poured into this project. I'm busting at the seams with effervescent appreciation!*****

For those who have been waiting forever and a day for this project to pick up speed, never fear the end is near! We're hoping to post a new chapter a week starting next week. As always, we love hearing your comments, criticism, and feedback. Read and enjoy!

Speaking key:

_Parseltongue_

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind

"_It's not as if we have a plethora of options at this point"_ Alex pointed out. He picked up the nearly empty bottle of wine and passed it to his nephew.

Nicholas glared at the bottle, not bothering to stretch out his rag-covered arm.

"_You've exhausted all the other options. There is little else to choose from- So stop this infernal moping and pick a school."_

"_Australia…"_ Nick started, but was cut off when the wine bottle was suddenly being chucked at his head. He managed to dodge the flying object, and not a moment too soon. "_Right, need citizenship, forgot. Surely Canada doesn't have the best relationship between Muggles and Magics? There must be schools in Canada that won't require Canadian citizenship."_

"_Yes, there are three options. The school on Salt Spring Island, BC…"_

"_No,"_ Nick huffed. The very thought of attending the hippy-dippy school was enough to offend every fiber of his being.

But Alex only snorted, and continued. "_Right, well, there is also the school in the Alberta-BC border. I might remind you that it is a 'survival of the fittest' type of school, however."_ Nick visibly winced at this. "_I'll take that as a no, then. That leaves The Healer's school in Toronto, but since you've never once shown an interest in healing I think I can assume that's not an option."_

Nick remained seated on the threadbare couch he had claimed as his own, staring at his fingers as he drummed them on his knees. "_There are schools in Japan that I would qualify for." _An empty wine glass whizzed passed Nick, and smashed against the wall of the shack in which the two sat. "_Right, I only really speak English and Parseltongue..."_

"_Really only parseltongue, in case you haven't noticed. You sound daft when you speak English."_

Nick threw his arms up into the air, a cloud of dust billowing up as if to help illustrate his point. "_That's what I'm saying Uncle! How the hell do you expect me to learn anything in an all-English school? Last I checked, the only Parseltongue left in Europe is a crazy mass murderer. I doubt he'll be willing to help explain my homework to me. Plus, all the spells will be in Latin. I don't even speak English, but Latin? Latin spells?!"_

"_Sit. Down."_ Alex wrenched Nick back down onto the weathered couch. "_Look, Durmstrang is fairly Dark arts friendly…."_

"_Parseltongue is a language. Not bloody Dark Magic" _Nicholas shoved his uncle's hand away. He refused to turn into some curse slingling maniac, just because he was a parseltongue.

Nick let his arms rest against the threadbare arm of the couch again. Something squeaked and rustled inside the couch fabric, scampering away from the arm and further towards the center of the sofa. Nick ignored it at first.

"_The Europeans don't tend to agree. One of Hogwarts' founders was a parseltongue, so there is a chance they will know of underground parseltongue communities that we don't know of, because of the wing-nut 'dark lord.' I really think this is your best option, Nicholas."_

Nick grabbed his empty wine glass and tossed it at the far wall, just to watch is shatter. "_Mend,"_ he commanded. The glass reformed itself in a blink and lay on its side against the rotting floorboards. There wasn't much else in the shack to break at this point. Half the front door was missing (probably an angry werewolf trying to break in or out). The windows had only a sliver or two left of the old panes of glass, held to the frame by sheer force of will, Nick could only guess.

"_Look, I know you'd rather stay with myself and the others, but that isn't an option anymore. You know that. Once you've been trained a bit more, then obviously you can continue traveling with us, but after last week…" _

Nick huffed loudly, and the animal in the couch seemed to sense his anger, because the next moment it was exiting the couch and making a break for the door, clamoring around the bits of brick that had fallen from the crumbled remains of the fireplace. For a fraction of a second, Nick thought about running after it to escaping his Uncle's crazy plans.

But the thought passed as quickly as it came. Where would he go without the guidance and protection of his Uncle's (albeit strange) coven?

"_That was an accident. How was I supposed to know what those damned Runes meant?"_ Nick growled.

Alex ran his finger over his immaculately-kept nineteenth century suit cuffs. A brief moment of contemplation played over his face before he schooled his features once more and turned to face his adoptive nephew,stern.

"_Child, I'm not arguing the point. As the hunt gets more challenging we'll end up facing great risks. You simply don't know enough to survive most of these…. adventures. During the summer you'll join us again to search, but for the most part we need you to focus on your studies..."_

"_I am focused!"_

"_Yes, but in a safe place,"_ Alex continued, throwing a pointed glare at Nick for the interruption. Nick gave a dramatic sigh and flopped back onto the couch. "_At this point, your options are Durmstrang or Hogwarts, but one of them will be receiving a letter requesting a transfer by the end of the night, so which is it? Unless, of course, you'd rather rejoin your cousins at your Aunt's house?"_

Nick seethed at the low blow, grumbling, "_Obviously I have no wish to join that bloody psychopath again. How many times did she just leave me and my cousins to either die or figure things out for ourselves? Uncle, I watched my own, bloody cousin _die _of drugs and the cold in a back alley in Seoul. The only reason I and the other two survived was because that bloody frozen peacock from your coven found us and brought us to Shaman Mao". _

"_True, your Aunt has … unconventional methods of raising the young." Alex agreed calmly. _

"_Unconventional?!" _

"_Calm yourself, going back to your Aunt's wasn't really an option. I was simply trying to make a point. Going to a school in Europe for a year or two isn't the worst thing that could have or _has _happened to you," _Alex pointed out. He pulled a rustic gold watch from his vest pocket, then tisked and tutted disappointedly at what he saw. "_Well, I haven't all night. Which will it be? Hogwarts or Drumstead?"_

"_Might as well be Hogwarts, maybe they'll at least have a few books I can understand. Screw me now, English for eight months of the year," he muttered bitterly, "I can barely manage five minutes in English."_

Nick covered his face with his hands. Alex patted the boy's arm in what was possibly a halfhearted attempt at reassurance, before pulling out some parchment and a quill to write a note to the head of Hogwarts: Professor Dumbledore.

…..

"Speak English if you must speak at all," Alex warned as he gripped Nick's arm, and apparated the pair to the front gates of the formidable Hogwarts castle.

An old man with a white beard and twinkling blue eyes waited patiently, with hands clasped in front of his waist. "Ah, you must be Mr. Broda" The elderly man smiled gently at Nick, before turning his gaze to Alex. The man didn't exactly sneer,but the greeting towards Alex was clearly _not _as friendly, "Mr. Legaunt, I presume."

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Alex gave a slight bow, then turned to Nick. He said nothing else, only raised a single eyebrow. Nick wanted to say that he'd be fine, that he didn't need the old leech hovering, but he really didn't know that many words in English. Instead, he settled for a haughty sneer.

"If you have any problems, do not hesitate to contact me immediately. If you are, in fact, willing to take Mr. Borda in as a student, please contact me so that I may send over his luggage." With a final glare towards Nick and a simple bow to the Headmaster, Alex vanished with an abruptness in a puff of smoke.

"Well then, shall we?" the old man motioned with an aged hand towards the imposing castle at the top of the hill.

Nick bit back a sigh of frustration as he found he simply didn't know enough English to say more than yes or no. Nick would have rather preferred they flew up the hill, but without a reasonable grasp of the language, the boy found himself awkwardly trailing the old man up to the castle.

The castle was about as stunning as any castle Nick had ever seen. It was certainly in overall better condition then the Russian castle Nick had stayed in with his Aunt and Cousins when his parents first died, but it wasn't any more spectacular than most of the Castles owned by family or Coven members whom Alex had visited over the years.

The lake was a nice touch though, Nick admitted silently to himself. It made the whole place seem a bit more majestic. Water had that quality.

The four towers had a certain presence about them too, now that Nick really took a look at the place. They looked more than just sturdy, they looked almost... welcoming. The castle as a whole, really, had an air of welcoming. Like a well loved family home.

The castle wasn't as cold as Nick had expected from a building made of nothing but magic and stone.

As the two carried on, Headmaster Dumbledore dutifully explained a variety of the many wonders and mysteries of the castle, most of which Nick hadn't the faintest idea what he was going on about. He was led through a set of wooden double doors, into what looked to be a rather large and intimidating eating hall.

Then, he was led to a staircase that moved. Certainly intriguing.

Dumbledore chuckled at Nick's obvious surprise. "Quite an impressive bit of magic, isn't it?" Nick merely nodded along, not exactly sure what the word impressive might mean, but he took his best guess. "One must be careful, though. These steps do not always lead where one would hope". Again, Nick nodded, slowly this time. He caught Dumbledore's eye for a moment, and couldn't help but see glint of understanding in the old man's eyes. "Caution," Dumbledore motioned towards the steps, as if to say 'vanish'. "Watch your step."

Nick smiled just the slightest bit. The tour continued with far more gestures and simpler words, and Alex quickly found himself starting to pick up the meaning of different phrases. They eventually came to stand in a nearly-empty classroom. A rather small man stood on a pile of books up at the front of the classroom. He grinned, and clapped his hands together with excitement.

"Nicholas, this is Professor Flitwick, he teaches charms here at Hogwarts" The headmaster motioned towards the four-foot-nothing half goblin who stood atop a pile of books that looked older than the rest of the school, cheerfully nodding his head in agreement with the headmaster's words.

"Let's see what you know, yes?" the man said excitedly. A women dressed in dark green robes and a straight back stood to the left of the man, and a plump woman stood just to his right. Another man, dressed all in black and wearing what seemed to be an ever-present sneer stood to the left of the serious woman in green.

"Lockhart has yet to grace us with his presence" the man in black sneered.

"This is Professor Snape, youngest Potions Master to date." The cheery half goblin introduced. The man in black showed neither pride nor contempt at his title, he merely gave the slightest tip of his chin towards this Professor Flitwick to acknowledge the compliment.

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully. "Nevertheless, if Lockhart is not here, we must carry on. Shall we?" Dumbledore motioned for Nick to step forward. Nick saw that a feather had been placed on the desk in front of him. "Let's start with a levitation charm."

Nick watched Dumbledore motion with his wand to the feather to see just what the man was looking for. Nick longed to simply command the feather to float up gradually, just as it was demonstrated, but he couldn't do it without using Parselmagic.

The little man on the stack of books smiled encouragingly and motioned for Nick to give it a try. Nick simply stared between the small man and the stationary feather. The shorter wizard took out his wand and pointed it at feather. "Wingardium Leviosa" the man commanded, and watched as the feather floated up with ease. The charm was released, and everyone turned to Nick expectantly.

Nick pulled out his wand and looked at it strangely; He had never been taught magic with a wand, but now, it looked as if he would have to use it here. He pointed it feather and gave it his best shot. "...Wingardium Leviosa". The feather floated up gradually, perhaps a bit shakily even, but it _did _go up. The wizard on top of the books clapped his hands excitedly.

"Excellent, excellent, very well done!"

The rest of the testing period went much the same way, with one of the professors at a time offering a demonstration, followed by Nick doing his best to copy them.

He was introduced to the lady in green. She was Professor Mcgonagall the transfiguration teacher. She gave the impression that she would lecture a quill if it dare have the audacity to flutter out of place.

The stout woman was Professor Sprout, who taught herbology. She was a fair bit gentler than the lady in green but Nick was under no disillusion: She was every bit as strict as her taller counterpart.

When it came to potions though, the gental guidance he received before vanished. The sneering, overgrown bat introduced as Professor Snape gave Nick parchment with a potion explained, and motioned towards both the cauldron and the ingredients all neatly laid out for him. Nick looked at the parchment and back to the bat of a man, but was meet only with yet another sneer, "I haven't all day, Mr. Broda."

Nick looked over the ingredients and tried to guess what the man wanted him to make, but he honestly didn't have a clue. Nothing came to mind when he looked the ingredients over. He counted the words that looked like ingredient names on the parchment, then counted the available ingredients at his disposal, and found there were _far _more ingredients than he probably needed. Nick shrugged and simply started cutting and dicing ingredients, hoping something would come to mind as he went. A good way into his brewing, Nick found that he was making a Babbling Beverage. He smirked at the cauldron as he gave the stirring rod a final turn counter-clockwise, and moving it from the heat to bottle and label.

"That... is not the potion that was clearly written out for you, Mr. Broda," The potions master drawled. "Do you think you are clever?" Nick said nothing as he glared at the overgrown bat. "Well?" The man raised an eyebrow. Nick wasn't even sure what the man was saying, much less how to respond, so he simply glared back. "Dumbledore, I am sure you know where I stand. I already risk enough with Mr. Longbottom in my class."

The professors each went on to say something to the man-bat, but Nick was too busy translating in his mind what the potion professor had said to pay any mind to them.

The lady in green glared at the overgrown bat, but the action went unnoticed.

The headmaster waved a hand towards the door to the hall. "I will need a moment with the other professors." Nick nodded and headed for the hall.

Not five minutes later, a beaming Dumbledore came out of the office. "You will be quite happy to know that Hogwarts will be honored to accept you. Now, there is just a matter of which house you will be placed in, then we can get you all settled in."

Nick nodded at the Headmaster. There was a small, childish part of himself that was pleased at passing the test, but the more rational part of Nick was kicking himself for not intentionally failing. He might have had a chance to travel with Alex and his coven again if he hadn't just gotten himself accepted.

Nick followed Dumbledore through the twists and turns of the halls until they came to a gargoyle, which looked suspiciously similar to something he was certain he'd seen before.

"Exploding Snaps." The gargoyle moved to the side, revealing a spiral staircase.

Very soon, Nick found himself sitting across from Dumbledore, having a staring contest with a phoenix. To his bewilderment, a tattered hat was also plopped unceremoniously onto his head not long after his arrival.

A Slytherin to the core, how very interesting. I had thought Tom would have been the last of you

_Tom? _Nick hissed back to the voice. To his great frustration, he found that the hat could not understand him. The Phoenix in front of him appeared to glare at him with suspicion, but Nick sneered back and tried to concentrate on creating images in his mind that might convey what he meant He found the hat returning the act in kind. This Tom was, evidently, the crazy mass murderer in Europe. Nick pictured a sea of stars between himself and the crazy psychopath.

The Hat chuckled and proceeded to show a green crest with a silver serpent on it. Men following wealth and power followed. Nick reflected on these new images. He was rather ambitious, but he was only there to learn. His ambitions would come later. Nick thought of the pile of books the professor had been standing on earlier. A picture of a black Raven on a blue crest appeared in his mind's eye, and Nick nodded at the image. If there was a house for studying, that was what he wanted.

"Ravenclaw!" the hat shouted. Nick had not been expecting the hat to say anything,let alone yell as loud as a dieing Yeti. He gripped the chair beneath him in his surprise and the damned, flaming turkey had the audacity to _laugh _at him for his reaction. The Phoenix ceased its odd laughter and looked fondly at Nick, but it was ignored.

"How wonderful. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. I myself have been know to get lost for days in a good book. Lemon drop?" A little yellow candy shaped like a lemon was offered by the Headmaster.

Nick gave a slight smile and accepted a candy. It was not at all what he was expecting. It was just as sour as a full lemon, with a sudden kick of sweetness at the end, like he'd just shoved a spoonful of honey into his mouth to try and get away from the acidic blast of sour.

'Note to self' Nick thought, 'avoid barmy old man's candies.'

"Shall we get you moved in, then?"

Nick was led through the twists and turns of the halls once again. He was a bit surprised to see how _lived in_ the castle was. There were no boarded up rooms, to degraded to be safe to use. There was no fine layer of dust collected on every window sill. Even the portraits were all still occupied. Not even one of the occupants had gotten bored of life as a painting and simply left their frame altogether as portraits tend to do after a time.

The walls and floors were all scrubbed washed by diligent fingers. The paintings all had their paint recently touched up. The windows had all be recalled over time so there was no drafty breeze about the corridors. This castle was infact nothing like the coven and family castle he had visited over his lifetime. It was much more loved and cared for.

Eventually they came across a door with a knocker shaped like a bronze eagle. The beak of the door knocker opened, and it said, "He who builds me doesn't want me, he who buys me doesn't use me, he that uses me doesn't know he's got me. What am I?"

Dumbledore turned to Nick and appeared to be waiting patiently. Nick started the tedious task of translating in his head, looking for the English word to the Parseltongue. '_...Coffin?_" he finally thought, but he wasn't sure what the word was in English. On a whim, he grabbed the door knocker and simply pulled the picture of a coffin to the front of his mind. Just like that, the door swung open before them.

"Most curious" Dumbledore murmured as the two walked up the stone steps to the grand common room.

The Ravenclaw common room had graceful arched windows, and the walls are hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling was painted with an exquisite array of stars, a pattern that was echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. Tables, chairs, and bookcases covered the expanse of the floor, and a white-marble statue of the lady Rowena Ravenclaw sat next to the door that lead to the dormitories above.

"The other students will arrive in a few days' time. For now, you will have a chance to explore the castle. All meals are served and eaten in the great hall. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to come to me or one of the other professors."

"Goodnight" Nick waved as the old man swept out the door, down the spiral stairs, and back to the halls. Nick found his way into the third year boys dormitory and plopped down onto one of the beds. There were just three other beds in the door room. Much to Nick's surprise, his belongings were already sitting at the foot of his own bed.

"_So, that's it then?" _Nick asked the room. "_No more adventure. For the next eight months I have to hit the books and study like a good boy."_

No one answered the question, but he did find several textbooks and an English-to-Parseltongue Dictionary sitting innocently at the end of his bed as well. Nick grabbed the first one off the pile, pulled out a quill and parchment, and got to reading. He made notes as he went, and wrote translations above any words he didn't know.

(line break here).

When the morning finally came, Nick grabbed his translation dictionary, parchment and a quill, and went in search of some breakfast before he decided to hunt down the library.

The great hall was empty, so Nick simply found a place to sit and eat on his own. He wasn't sure which of the long tables were for which houses, but he ended up settling for a middle table and a seat close to the hall doors.

By lunchtime Nick had gotten himself so lost he eventually had to rangle in a poltergeist to get him back to his rooms. He was given very clear instructions but he didn't remember all of them so instead he ended up in library and opted to miss the afternoon meal in favor of looking through the vast number of books that filled the enormous room. There were, much to Nick's disappointment, no books in parseltongue, although he found a few in German, French, and several other languages he didn't recognize.

At the evening meal most of the professors were present, and of course, Nick was introduced to everyone. He found himself disliking Professor Snape just as much as he had on the day he'd first met the man. Thankfully, the rest of the professors seemed nice enough. Professor Filius Flitwick was just as enthusiastic as Nick's first day at Hogwarts, and Nick found such positivity contagious. He listened attentively to the stories of the wizard's days as a duelist, even though he didn't understand most of what was being said.

Professor Lockhart, on the other hand, was incredibly annoying. At first, he hadn't seemed so terrible, but by the end of the meal Nick found that for any tale Professor Flitwick told, Professor Lockhart found the need to out-do, telling near-identical tales with even more dangerous and impressive feats.

Still, Nick found himself enjoying Professor Flitwick's action packed stories of the late Transfiguration Professor Emeric Switch. Professor Flitwick was kind enough to mim out many of his words as he told the table of his epic rivalry with Professor Emeric Switch. The two dueled in Egypt, Switzerland, Haiti, Lesotho and Tanzania before the pair both took up positions at Hogwarts. It was under the extraordinary diplomatic skills of the Headmaster that the two managed to not maim each other. Infact, If Nick understood the Charms Professor correctly, the pair had even managed to get along well enough to run a dueling club together. Though they often duel each other more then they taught students.

When Professor Lockhart started in on tale of his own nemesis, Nick tuned him out and focused on his meal. He noted with a hint of amusement that most of the professors had made their escape when Professor Lockhart started up. Only the kind hearted Professor Sprout stuck around to politely nodded along to the man's outrageous stories.

A week went by much the same way that the first day had, and even in that short span of time Nick found himself learning more words and understanding more of what his professors said.

By the time the week came it an end, Nick was mourning the inevitable loss of silence and solitude as students poured in for the great evening meal and introduction from the headmaster himself.

His last meal with the Professors was lunch and thankfully Professor Lockhart was absent. Nick got the pleasure of sitting across from the ever excitable Professor Flitwick. The half goblin as usual told stories to Nick, more actions with his hands then words.

This last meal, the stories were focused on the Professor's first days of school. It was abundantly clear to Nick that Professor Flitwick had had a very hard time at school. The Professor motioned to his height and then half of himself, motioning downwards as if to say of less statues. Nick was offended on his Professors behalf, but Flitwick waved him off with a grin and began telling hilarious stories of him exacting revenge on others. He was at a particularly good part in the story when the women in green let out an outrage noise in the back of her throat.

"Don't you go telling him about that" She says sternly, pointing a bony finger at the little professor. "I won't have it".

"Surely you don't have something to hid Minerva" The bat professor purred.

She whipped around to face the youngest professor, "I don't suppose you'd mind then if I tell the next story. Perhaps a cautionary tale about drinking before one's potion OWL? Hmm," The potion master clammed up, "I thought not."

The half goblin Professor motioned to Nick to say that the story would have to wait another day. Lucky Professor Mcgonagall didn't see. Nick grinned happily at the idea.

The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning up his space in the dorm room and warding his possessions from theft. At first Nick tried to use Latin warding spells and ruins, but he quickly gave up and simply used parcelspells.

When dinner came Nick sat himself at the table under the Ravenclaw banner and waited for the festivities to begin. Three boys sat around him. "Marcus Belby" one of the boys introduced himself as. "And this is Eddie Carmichael and Hugo Mattingley. You're a third year too, right?" Nick nodded slowly, not really sure how much he wanted to get into a conversation with the strangers bound to ask questions, questions he wouldn't know how to answer- Well, not in English, anyway.

Marcus was slightly taller than Nick and as thin as a beanpole. He sat slightly slouched most of the time though, casually leaning on any surface, be it animate or alive, that presented itself as comfortable.

"Belby?" Nick asked, suddenly struck with the familiar-sounding surname. "Damocles Belby?"

Marcus flushed a little and groaned, "Look, I don't really talk to my Uncle much. Him and my dad don't really get on. I ... I don't know anything about him."

Nick grinned knowingly. Damocles Belby was a brilliant, sarcastic, stuck up prick. As a member of the wizarding world, Nick appreciated his work on creating the Wolfsbane Potion but as an individual Nick hated spending any amount of time with the man. Particularly since he didn't speak enough English to understand what the potion master had been trying to tell him when Nick and Alex were working in the Greater Communal Potion Labs, back in Switzerland.

"You've meet Uncle Damocles?" Marcus asked, vaguely curious tone mixed with the bookworms general apathy

"Once" Nick answered.

Marcus snorted, "More than I can say to be honest. I've heard loads though. Where you from, anyways?"

Nick blinked. "Canada."

"They speak English there too, don't they?" Eddie teased. Nick only grinned and shrugged.

Hugo gave Eddie a light shove. "You ever study history? I know you're a pureblood and all but, really." The boys bantered and bickered on.

Nick smiled and nodded for most of the time, but he didn't contribute much to the discussion.

Suddenly, the doors opened and the hall came to a hushed silence. Professor Mcgonagall walked in with a trail of what must have been first years following behind her.

One by one up, each of them was called up to a three-legged wooden stool, where the sorting hat was placed on their heads and a house was called out. It was all done in much the same way as it had been done for Nick.

An interesting girl named Luna Lovegood was sorted next into Ravenclaw, and the girl ended up sitting to the left of Nick on the bench, beside a handful of other firsties. The girl had turnips for earrings and tights a red so shockingly that it almost hurt to look at them. A strange talsman hung around her neck. It looked vaguely familiar to Nick. It warded off a type of pest, he remembered that much, but whether it was rats or bad thoughts he couldn't remember.

After the Headmaster gave a quick speech, the food was called up and dinner began. Nick was somewhat warmed to see that the rest of the Ravenclaws clearly understood very little of what Dumbledore said either, so he supposed that wasn't just a language barrier thing.

As Nick served himself some food he felt a finger poke his wrist.

"You know that crushed Dreamsworth heals the burn of a Heliopath?" Luna Lovegood said to him airily. Nick looked down at the ugly burn mark on his wrist. It was hard enough finding a Heliopath, how on earth would he ever find Dreamsworth? "I have some, if you like." Luna offered airly. Nick smiled and gave a slight nod.

"Heliopath" one of the girls sitting across from Luna tisked, "don't really exist." Nick looked at the girl with poorly hidden shock. "_I've_ never read about them," the girl continued, like this was her most convincing argument.

Nick nodded kindly to Luna, as if to say, 'please explain.'

The brilliant little firstie caught on. "Heliopath: a spirit of fire which gallops and burns anything in its path".

"like s'mores" Nick offered. His voice was silky and smooth but the words still came out more like hisses, rather than proper English speech. Nick pulled out his wand and drew a picture of a Heliopath in the air. With a final swish of his wand he animated it so that the horse he'd created galloped around the table, leaving burning trails wherever it went.

"They're incredibly hard to find. Did you catch it?" Luna questioned. The other Ravenclaws continued to look rather skeptically at the creature trampling through the air. Nick shook his head as an answer to the Lovegood girl. "That's alright. I'm sure you'll find one again. Though I can't imagine why you'd be in the desert. That's where they live you know" she said.

Just then, professor Flitwick was upon them. He handed Nick his class schedule and clapped him on the shoulder. "What wonderful charm work!" he proclaimed "Very well done."

Nick nodded to the professor, took the schedule in his hand, and began looking it over. There was a short bit of writing on the back of the schedule, which Nick recognised as the ending to the story about Mcgonigal. Nick didn't have the knowledge to translate it right there and then, but shoved it into his bag to do so later.

"Where's Potter?" Hugh asked Marcus.

Marcus shrugged, "Didn't even notice he wasn't here."

"Heard he wasn't on the train" Eddie piped up. "Reckon he's not coming at all this year?"

"Na, boy-who-lives, he'll be here." Marcus said matter-of-factly.

"Potter?" Nick asked.

"Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. He defeated the dark lord when he was just one year old. Some say he'll save the whole wizarding world again, some day. He's a Gryffindor. Figure he would be, really, being the saviour and all" Huge explained. Marcus and Eddie nodded together in agreement.

Nick said nothing . He wasn't sure how much faith he should place on an education who still believed in saviors. There was a Savior in America a few years back, and _that _hadn't ended very well at all. The poor boy had died in a drunk flying accident. He'd be told his whole life he would live to defeat the uprising of vampires so he had, rather illogically, figured he could live through anything until his work was done. Nick wasn't willing to put stock into saviors. If there was any saving to do, he would rather do it himself.

Why Europeans still put stock in such rubbish was beyond him.

(line break here)

Nick had wanted to go to the library after dinner but found himself being herded up to the dormitory. As promised, Luna gave Nick some Dreamsworth. Nick crushed it into a paste and spread it over his burn, watching in fascination as the burn healed. He pulled his shirt off and sat on his bed, applying the paste to the large burn over his chest.

Hugo stared at Nick, then the burn, in shock, "What… What on earth _do _you do in Canada?"

Nick shrugged, then pointed to the slowly disappearing burn mark as he muttered, "Heliopath, Egypt." He pointed to the scar underneath the burn mark, "Dragon, Canada," a faded line on his shoulder, "merpeople, Italy" Nick then pointed to the killer set of claw marks that ran across his back, finally saying, "Drop Bear, Australia".

"Drop Bear?" Hugo asked.

"S Magical 'oils, s'et s'meat."

The other boys only gave Nick strange looks. Nick sighed and pulled out his wand to draw a picture of the carnivorous koala.

The image in the air really didn't do the massive twelve foot carnivorous monster justice. The cousin to the koalas, the dropbear was a massive beast that prowled around the forest of Australia hunting whatever it came across. Nick had run across one once with two of his cousins. Only two of them managed to get away. The oldest died after the bloody thing snuck up on them three days after they first spotted it. Nick and his younger cousin both sustained sizable wounds, but Nick managed to use a makeshift broom to fly them out of the forest altogether.

Despite the lack of realism in the whispy image, Nicks roommates all looked reasonably appalled at the creature.

Nick canceled the charm with a final swipe of his wand and waved goodnight to the others, before drawing the blue and bronze curtains shut around his bed. Once settled, he brought out his textbooks to read over the first chapter for each of his classes he had the following day.

The first weekend Nick had spent at Hogwarts, he spent in an empty classroom, brewing potions. He began with a Calming Draught, since he always found them helpful, but then he realized that while he already had his things out, the Fire Protection Potion wasn't very hard to make. Really, Luna burned herself far more than was good for her, and since she had given him Dreamsworth he _should _really give her something in return. However, Fire Protection Potion takes twenty minutes to simmer on low heat with absolutely no stirring, so, what was Nick to do for all that time? Just stare at the cauldron?

He figured he might as well do something fun, to kill time, like brew a Hair-Raising Potion. Or perhaps a Laugh-inducing Potion. Actually... why not make both? They weren't very challenging, so Nick came to the brilliant conclusion that he should make an Invisibility Potion too, a potion which took a lot more time and patience. In all honesty, he was just avoiding working on his English. But... making potions was a productive procrastination, so it was all ok, right?

It was nearly dinner time when two fourth year gryffindors popped up in the potions classroom, finding a place smack in front of Nick's cauldron.

"What do we have here George?"

"Looks like Snape to me, Fred"

"Can't be, George, he's much too small."

One of the twins made to grab a bottle of the hair-raising potion, but Nick nabbed it first. "Oi, we just wanted to look" the twins chorused.

Nick sighed in defeat, reluctantly handing the potion over.

The boy held up the potion as if inspecting the colour, but it was fairly obvious he had no idea what he was looking at. "What you reckon it does, George?"

"Not a clue Fred." The two looked at Nick expectantly.

"''Elp me s'udy" Nick said offhandedly. The twins lit up at the explanation. George took the top off the vial with eagerness and took a swig, then handed it to Fred. The two emptied the bottle in no time. Nick looked up just in time to see the surprise in the face of the twins as they watched each others' hair stand straight up on end.

"Huh! Never thought a bookworm Ravenclaw…"

"..Had it in him to pull a prank."

Nick grinned. "It's not a s'ank. Sell 'otions..." Nick shrugged.

"Not a prank?" The twins repeated in dramatic offence.

"Hear that Fred? We have ourselves our own little potion master!" George grinned. "How much?" Nick looked at the collection of potions in front of himself.

"Invisible" Nick pointed to the three vials of clear liquid. " 'Each me 'ow 'o 'alk"

"So, just speaking lessons George, you hear that? All the pranking material we want, in exchange for just teaching dear mini-snape here to talk, like us."

"Fred, I do believe this is a deal we simply can_not_ pass up. What d'ya say to some lessons tonight in exchange for two of those invisibility potions, eh?"

Nick nodded gratefully and shook hands with the twins, sealing the deal.

That evening, Nick sat outside the castle with the twins, reviewing different words. They set out a schedule to meet on Wednesdays and Sundays for lessons, during the times when there weren't any classes. Then, Nick would spend his Saturdays brewing potions that the Weasley twins requested. The twins gave him a list of the potions they wanted, just off the top of their heads, and showed him how to send an order by post to the Slug and Jiggers Apothecary in Diagon Alley.

In the evening, Nick pulled out his class schedule and turned it over to begin translating the note from Professor Flitwick.

"_There was _nothing _she could do about it, even when she figured out what I had done. Even the healer at the time didn't know how to reverse it. Headmaster _Dumbledore _might have known, but he didn't _interfere_. She had to spend the entire week with cat ears and a tail. I had thought she would stop her incredibly rude questions, but she persisted nonetheless. In the _middle _of the hall, she would loudly ask about my upbringing and this and that. So on Friday night I lined the _ceiling _of the _slytherin common room _with Catnip. Sure enough, she made it down from the Gryphandor tower to the dungons and one way or another into the common room. Malcolm, her younger brother and a first year _slytherin _at the time, had to man _handle _her out of the room at three in the morning. After that Malcolm called a truce between the Flitwick and Mcgonagall households on his sister's behalf. I accepted and after which I never had an issue with Manerva. Though we do set pranks on one another from time to time."_

Nick was grinning like a lone by the end of the tale. He was fairly certain the story had a purpose. Largely to be recuted to the cause. Nick looked at the time. There was just enough time before curfew to pop over to Professor Flitwicks rooms.

Nick opened his potion stores and pulled out an animal speach potion. The potion let the drinker speak to any animal they choose, they simply had to drop a hair from said spices in and take a gulp. The only down side was that the potion didn't let the user speak any human language. The potion took about an hour to ware off.

Nick slipped the potion into his robes and headed down to Flitwick's office. He knocked twice. The door opened to revile Professor Mcgonigal and Professor Flitwick taking tea while playing a game of chess at Professor Flitwick's desk.

"Nick, how is everything?" Professor Flitwick asked marily.

"Good" Nick answered truefully, stepping into the office, Nick put the potion and he folded bit of parchment with the instruction on the desk by Flitwicks tea. "From…" Nick made the cross sigh on his arm like the healers outfit.

"Ah, yes, yes. Thank you. I had meant to get that after lunch" Neither Flitwick or Nick made any indication that there was something more afoot and Professor Mcgonigal picked nothing up. Sipping her tea contently, none the wise of the plots.

Nick slipped back out of the office with a silent wave goodbye and headbed for his dorms again.

(page brake)

On Sunday morning, Grant Page, a fourth year Ravenclaw boy, pulled Nick from one of the chairs in the common room and handed him a Comet 290 broomstick, without much enthusiasm. "We need a Chaser," the older boy grunted.

Nick gave the broom one look, and handed it right back.

"Play, and I'll let you read my copy of "Hogwarts: a History." It's Seventh edition, first print." A tempting prize for any Ravenclaw, certainly.

Nick glared at the offending broomstick. He really didn't want to play Quidditch, not in the slightest, but if he wanted to find other parseltongues, one of the original "Hogwarts: a History"s would certainly be a good place to start. Nick nodded a yes and motioned for Grant to wait. Then Nick went up to his dorm and grabbed his own broom from the rest of his belongings. Grant looked at the broom curiously, but said nothing.

Nick was led down to the quidditch pitch. He watched the others play for a bit, and listened to Roger Davies, the team Captain, prattle on about strategy. Nick was surprised he understood most of what Roger was saying. The practice went well enough, though it wasn't anything spectacular. The first game would take place in several weeks, so there was a lot of time to improve. Honestly though, Nick would have figured most people had been forced onto the team. Roger Davies seemed to be the only one taking the practice seriously.

As promised, Nick got to spend the following week poring over Grant Page's copy of "Hogwarts: A History."

After Nick second quidditch practice, he gave back Grant's book and settled into working on the homework he had been neglecting.

(Page break)

Luna and Nick sat curled up on opposite ends of one of the common room couches, reading and working on homework.

"Nick, do you ever listen to the walls?" Luna asked in a sudden moment of curiosity.

Nick frowned down at his Charms homework. "I can't say I ever 'ave. Mos'ly I just read be'ween classes." There was silence for a moment, and Nick thought Luna might explain. "Luna, why 'o you ask?"

Luna grinned and pulled on the tiny grapefruit hanging from her collar. "I saw Harry listening to the walls today. Very strange. I thought you might have heard something I didn't."

Nick smiled at the strange girl sitting across from him. There really was not a good response to something like that, so he simply nodded and turned back to his work.

It was part way into October when Nick found himself watching the post fly in at breakfast when he realised how long he'd been away from his family. He wasn't normally one to get homesick, but watching all the letter be delivered to other students made him wish he got letters.

The next day at breakfast time, a large brown owl dropped a letter for Nick. The scrawl was messy and rather hard to read. He opened up the parchment and found a letter describing the many ways to catch a Heliopath. Luna had signed her name at the bottom.

"Who's it from?" Eddie asked.

Hugo tried to peer over his shoulder, but Nick leaned away. He met Luna's eyes and grinned from ear to ear.

"From a girl, is it, Bromda? Got a girl back in Canada?" Eddie asked teasingly.

Nick shook his head, "She is… good?"

"Good eh?" Eddie wiggled his eyes suggestively.

Nick scowled and threw a piece toast, hitting Eddie squarely in the forehead. The four boys burst into laughter. Nick put the letter in his pocket and turned to his roommates to commiserate over Lockhart's terrible teaching of defense against the dark arts.

The next day, a letter was dropped at Luna's place. Normally, the girls in her dorm ignored her, but suddenly they were all rather curious, once they saw the letter. Luna only smiled and slipped the letter into her pocket. It was the story of how Nick had come across the Heliopath the first time, and what exactly had happened. It had taken Nick more time to write then he cared to admit.


	2. Chapter 2

_Parseltongue_

English

"Talking"

Speaking in the mind

Chapter 2

"Hey Little Bitty Nickie" George clapped Nick on the back. Fred reached around the other side and nabbed the tarte off of Nick's plate. Nick tried to grab it back, but Fred popped it into his mouth in one go. George also grabbed the pumpkin juice from in front of Nick and drank the last of it.

"'On't you have your own?" Nick glared at the offending twins.

"Here's the thing," Fred sighed,

"We got in a wee bit of trouble with Snape."

"We're going to have to reschedule your lessons."

Nick frowned, eyebrow raised. The prank they had been planning wasn't due to happen until Friday, how on earth had they managed to get detention before the prank was even pulled?

Fred and George grinned knowingly.

"Marcus Flint" they chorused, "Real prat he is."

Nick turned to find Luna sitting beside him. She always seemed to know when she was needed to explain something. Luna looked up from carving happy faces into an orange. "Marcus Flint is the Slytherin quidditch captain," she mentioned with an air of nonchalance.

"I heard he called Hermione Granger a… a _mudblood_," Eddie murmured, uneasy with uttering the word. Nick turned to his three roommates with a keen ear. "Must be in the name, eh Marcus?" Eddie had to duck to avoid Marcus's book hitting him upside the head.

Hugo proceeded to flick a pea at Eddie, saying, "You don't ever pay attention. It was Draco Malfoy who called her….that. Flint's just the prick captain, that's all."

Nick turned to the twins, but all they did was shrug.

"Draco's a little small for anyone to be hexing."

That really wasn't the explanation he was looking for. Lucky for Nick, Luna was still right beside him.

"As the captain he really _should _have said something to Draco"

"Too right, Luna" George answered affirmatively.

"Did you know that Windigos are afraid of oranges?"

"Er, yeah, sure Luna." Fred took a step away from the first year and another step closer to the third years. "Anyways, we have to get to the dungeon before that greasy git gets impatient."

Luna watched the twins leave. Nick looked at the orange in her hand. There was a perfectly round face drawn into it, grinning ear from ear. Luna saw where he was looking and offered him the orange. Nick took it, placed it on the table, picked up Luna's forgotten wand and handed it back to her, all the while giving her a very pointed look. With his eyes alone he attempted to say 'for the love of god, woman, if you ever meet a windigo, you do not simply throw an orange at it. Please, use your damn wand!'

If Luna understood all that, she certainly didn't show it. All she did was smile at Nick as she took back the orange and her wand. With a bit of magic, she shrank the orange before hooking it on to a loose piece of hair.

"Loony Lovegood" one of the girls giggled in passing. The rest of the first years seemed to catch on to the remark.

"Loony Lovegood, oh, that's too perfect! You _are _such a _dolt _Luna, I mean really! What was that about Windigos, where did you read about them? The Quibbler?"

From where Nick was sitting, he could see Luna's fingures curled around her fork just a bit tighter. She continued to smile sweetly though as if blissfully unaware of the other first years cruelty.

"I wonder if there are any Windigos in the forbidden forest?" Luna pondered aloud, obviously ignoring the taunts and jeers. The other first years roared with laughter at poor Luna's expense.

Nick looked at the oblivious, wide-eyed girl beside him. He certainly hoped there were no windigos around. He'd yet to run into one, and he'd really like to keep it that way. The flesh-eating monsters were, perhaps, even worse than the Drop Bear.

"I'm going to the library. I heard there were Nargles in the astronomy section. You're welcome to come, if you'd like," Luna offered.

Nick shook his head, giving a wave goodbye as the first year left the dining hall without looking back.

"How did a girl like her ever get into Ravenclaw?" Marcus asked with a vicious spite in his tone. "She should be in Hufflepuff, that nut. Why do you spend time with her, anyways?" The last question was aimed towards Nick. Nick, on the other hand, couldn't help but wonder if there _was _in fact something about the name Marcus that brought out the worst in people.

"She know a lot," Nick tried to explain. He debated drawing a picture of a windigo, but really, who wanted to see that right after dinner? No one, that's who.

"She's so…. loopy though" Eddie answered, uncaring.

Nick just shrugged and got up from his seat. He figured he'd head back to the dorms, but when the other boys got up after him, Nick opted to take a detour down to the dungeons. A few Slytherins noticed and glared at him. When Nick wasn't around anyone he hissed, "_Invisible" _and disappeared from view. It certainly was a handy gift to have when you are the only parseltongue.

That particular spell was only really helpful if there weren't other parseltongues around. Which, as the semester dragged on, Nick was starting to think was not the case.

( break here)

As he reached the dungeon, Nick came across a trio standing in the darkly lit corridor, laughing cruelly at someone else's expense, no doubt.

"That's right, run away, Mudblood!" The boy in the center of the trio hollered to the back of a quickly retreating figure. "I don't see any reason why that muggle-lover Dumbledore is allowed to run this school. The likes of those…" The boy sneered at the fleeing figure, "should never be taught in a school like Hogwarts, if at all."

Nick glared at the pompous little slytherin boy. He recognized the middle figure as one of the members of the slytherin house quidditch team. The blond-haired kid was a seeker, and not a terribly good one if the last game against the gryffindor team was anything to go by. Nick pointed to the middle boy's robes and hissed "_Turn Gold." _He pointed to the other and hissed again, "_Turn Red._" The group yelped in surprise as soon as they noticed the change of colors in each other's robes. Each of them glared suspiciously at one another.

Nick could only grin as he pointed to their robes once against and hissed "_Gryffindor pride." _Unless there really was a parseltongue in Slytherin, those robes were never going to be changed back. With any luck.

The trio looked just about ready to kill each other over their horrendous taste in wardrobe. With practiced stealth, Nick slipped further down the halls before he could get caught in the crossfire.

"_And just where do you think you're going?" _a voice hissed. Nick whirled around to find himself looking at a painting of a very intimidating man with with a long, silver beard. The man was dressed in the most absurdly ornate green and silver robe. Complete with a talisman hanging from his neck that looked as if it might pull the man's neck to the floor if he tried to stand.

Nick blinked owlishly at the painting. He opened his mouth to say something, but no sound came out.

"_Well?" _

Nick cleared his throat. "_Ah.. well.. you see sir… I was just looking.. trying to find actually… I was hoping that… that there were other parseltongues around" _The painting suddenly swung open to reveal a small, circular library. With caution, Nick stepped into the little room and found that the man in the painting had moved to a canvas hanging over the fireplace.

"_I haven't seen a parselmouth in ages. Feel free to read" _ the man motioned to the books around the room, then took out a book of his own from the painthed library shelves above the fire placr and said nothing more to Nick.

Nick looked around the room and pulled out one of the first books he found. "_Parseltongue Patronus,"_ he breathed, reading the title aloud, and sat down on the floor by the fire. There were just two chairs in the little library, but they did not appear sturdy enough to hold up the weight of the dust that had settled on them much less an actual person.

The book was an interesting read, and incredibly relaxing too, after having to struggle through so many English books. After reading about the Patronus's Latin roots, he gave the spell a shot. First in latin: "Expecto Patronum." He tried to think of his happiest memory but every time he thought of one, an equally miserable memory came to mind, and the light would sputter out in a pitiful puff of magic. He tried parseltongue as well, but the only difference was a mildly greenish light coming to another sputtering end, rather than a pale blue one.

"_You must concentrate on your happiest memories" _the painting pointed out, flipping a page of his book with a dull expression on his painted face.

Nick flopped back onto the ground. "_I'm trying but it's harder than you make it sound." _The painting made a curious noise, but encouraged Nick again to go on. "_Well most of my happiest moments have been in 'the eye of the storm' so to speak. They all have heavily affiliation with rather terrible memories. The first time I flew a broom for example, I was nine and I was trying to escape a rather angry dragon. The flying part was amazing but the fear of being eaten still gives me nightmares from time to time."_

"_Surely there have been holidays? Festive seasons that have gone unmarred?" _The painting suggested, urging Nick on.

Nick frowned at the ceiling, racking his brain for something. "_There was a christmas when I was six…. No, that's when Uncle Flagole betrayed us and tried to kill Alex. Hmmm...here was Halloween last year… ah, no, Amelia had a miscarriage. No I don't really think there has been anything. Nothing at all."_

Nick sat up and sighed, looking over at the _Parseltongue Patronum_ book. He picked it up and rested it on the seat of one of the chairs.

"_Well, I'll think on that and come back in a bit to work on it. I have defense against the dark arts with the puffs now and I don't want to be late." _

"_Come back anytime you desire. It has been a very long time since I have had anyone to speak with." _

Nick said his goodbye and headed out into the corridor. He passed a few Slytherins on their way to a Herbology Class, a few of them whining about mandrakes as they walked by.

He entered the Defense Against the Dark classroom, and found a seat by Eddie.

"Now, students, as you know I am Gilderoy Lockhart. I have earned the Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and I am also five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. I am, dare I say, one of the most accomplished wizards to date. As such, I want you to know that absolutely no harm can or will come to you while you are in my classroom."

"_Why do I even bother showing up?_" Nick hissed to himself.

"Nick," Eddie elbowed the boy gently and pointed towards Professor Lockhart, "You might want to pay attention, I heard he let a flock of cornish pixies on the Gryffindors and Slytherins when he gave this speech last. Best not to doze off now. Wouldn't want to be caught unprepared."

Nick was tempted to point out that Cornish Pixies didn't exactly have any reason to put off a perfectly good, well-deserved nap just to attack a classroom filled with students, but he settled for writing nasty things about the self-proclaimed "most accomplished wizard" in the margins of his paper in parselscript.

"Now, I have brought in some freshly rounded up pixies for you lot to work with. Try to get all of them back into the cage by the end of class. I'm just going to...wait over here… I'm watching though, not to worry…. And good luck" Professor Lockhart called as he fled the quickly swarming flock of pixies. The professor disappeared into his office to cower, leaving the class to fend for themselves.

In the sudden upheaval most students tried to strike the pixies with an immobulus charm or swat them away with the otherwise useless books written by their professor. On the whole though, there really wasn't much of an effort to get the pixies back into their cage.

"I figure we let the little blighters stay out for the next class" Eddie recommended, passing one of the immobile pixies to Hugo, who in turn straightened the pixie and used it to create one of the towers of his newly constructed, frozen-pixie Hogwarts replica. It was quite a work of art.

Nick pointed his wand to one of the Pixies trying to grab his wand, then cast the "immobulus" charm himself. The Pixie he had aimed for stiffened mid-flight. Nick plucked the blue critter out of the air and passed it to Hugo.

"Thanks, mate. You know, we _could_ always put them all back in the cage and use the rest of class to do a group recap." Hugo pointed out. Marcus walked back over to their desks and passed Hugo three more immobilized pixies.

"I wouldn't mind practicing my 'Expelliarmus.' I understand the theory, but I always struggle with the practice part." Hugo gently bent another pixie into place. Then, happy with his handiwork, he sat back and admired his creation with immense satisfaction. When he looked around the group, wveryone just shrugged with a kind of resigned acceptance. It wasn't that everyone wanted to work, but if they were caught in the halls when they were supposed to be in class, they would get into trouble. And playing with pixies was really more trouble than it was worth.

Finally, the last of the pixies were rounded up and put back into their cage and the group moved into pairs to begin working on their "expelliarmus" spellwork.

The only time Nick had ever used the Latin version of the disarming spell was in his testing period, over a month ago. Within first few rounds of practice, Nick was sent onto his ass with Marcus laughing merrily down at him, but after a few tries Nick felt like he was getting the hang of it.

"Come on Nickie, don't be afwaid!" Marcus sang as Nick dove behind an overturned desk to avoid the incoming expelliarmus.

Nick shifted his weight around behind the pile of chairs he was ducked behind. A curse wizzed over his ear and blasted into a nearby table sending a shower of stinging glitter down on Nick.

He let out a low curse and took a blind leap to the left. Nearly colliding with possible the only desk still up right, Nick sent three consecutive disarming charms all approximately where Marcus was. He used the distraction to dive over the upright desk and behind a small fort of overturned desk the pixies had started.

Somethings was sent crashing to the ground. Nick risked peeking out from behind his fort to see the pile of chairs scattered on the ground.

"Not. Afraid." Nick hissed back , "you?". He sent an expelliarmus at the wall above Marcus's head, and when the boy moved out of the way Nick sent another one where he figured the boy would move to. Sure enough, there came the sound of someone hitting the floor, followed by a painful yelp from Marcus. That was enough for Nick to stand up from his hiding spot, and he sauntered over to his dorm mate. He didn't say anything, simply leaned casually against the desk that Marcus had previously tried to dive behind.

"Yeah Nick" Eddie and Hugo cheered from their place of relative safety at the back of the classroom with the rest of the third year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.

"That was _not_ proper dueling," One of the girls from Ravenclaw pointed out dryly. The girls behind her tittered and grinned at one another in agreement.

"It was very… athletic," one of the girls said. A blush crept into her cheeks when Nick and Marcus both delivered a graceful bow in her direction.

"Why, thank you" they said in unison. Granted, it didn't sound nearly as cool as when the twins spoke at the same time, since Nick still sounded like he was hissing most of the time.

"Perhaps we could work on some other spells now?" one of the hufflepuffs asked. The group all turned to look at the boy who'd spoken. He smiled sheepishly back. "I was hoping we could work on the Reparo spell? I can't ever get it right."

"That's a stellar idea, we could maybe get into groups and work on different spells," one of the Ravenclaw girls suggested, "I wanted to work on my Lumos, it's not exactly bright."

The group slowly split up into smaller groups of four or five people each, and began to work on spells. Nick found himself wandering between groups. He had particular affinity for the Bombarda spell, and gave several demonstrations with a little miniature door Eddie had transfigured from a desk. With a lazy flick of his wrist, he uttered the word, "Bombarda," and the door swung open gently. A more forceful swish, and a rather terse "Bombarda," and the door practically slammed open. Just for fun, Nick tried yelling "Bombarda" and found the door flying across the classroom, where it collided with one of the overturned desks at the front.

One of the Ravenclaw girls, Cho Chang, was kind enough to go over Petrificus Totalus with Nick and two Hufflepuff girls. Spells with 't's in them were the ones that Nick normally found particularly difficult, but by the time class was over, he could get it once every three tries or so.

The group of Puffs and Ravenclaws walked and chatted all the way back to the great hall. Eddie, Marcus, Hugo, and Nick took their regular seats, but when Nick noticed Luna (and her odd lack of shoes), he moved himself between her and Hugo. For good measure, he shot his dorm mates a warning glare to behave.

If Luna noticed anything out of the ordinary, she didn't say so. The other firsties looked almost disappointed to not have their favorite target of verbal ridicule, but quickly found amusement in gossiping about Draco Malfoy's second-rate placement in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Apparently, some muggleborn had out-performed him every year running.

"Nicholas," Luna greeted Nick turned to his favorite firstie and smiled. "You haven't happened to see my Herbology homework with your books, have you?" Nick shook his head. "Ah, well, I'm sure it will show up eventually."

Nick frowned and looked between the other first year girls, and Luna and raised an eyebrow. With a shrug, she assured, "Oh, it's all in good fun." Nick opened his mouth to argue but Luna gave him a disarmingly happy smile, so he shut his mouth and just accepted it for the time being.

( page break )

After dinner, the Ravenclaws collectively moved to the library with but a few exceptions. Nick found himself seated with Luna and a Gryffindor first year.

"Nick, this is Ginny Weasley. Ginny, Nick Broda," Luna introduced the two merrily. Nick nodded towards the girl with fierce eyes and hair the colour of autumn leafs.

He opened his potions homework. Snape had been… _kind_ enough to assign extra work on identification of potions to Nick, after he had failed to read the instructions properly yet again. That incident had ended with him producing a perfectly brewed Draught of Living Death- rather than a much easier-to-produce Dreamless Sleep Potion. It was better than detention, writing lines or scrubbing cauldrons, as Nick had already been given both after two other failed attempts at translating the title of the potion on the board. Typical.

"Are you going to go to Hogsmeade?," Luna implored. Nick looked up from his work and appeared deep in thought for a moment.

"Oh, you really should!" Ginny encouraged, chiming into the conversation. Her eyes widened when Nick gave her a look, and she turned back to her work as if trying to blend into the books on her desk.

Nick gave Luna a quizzical look, but Luna only smiled back. He guessed Luna didn't know why Ginny didn't feel comfortable talking to him.

"I migh' go... Did you wan' some'ing?" Nick asked Luna with genuine curiosity.

"Hmm.. Chocolate" Luna said decisively. "I will need chocolate".

"An' you, Ginny?" Nick asked. The redheaded girl looked up and gave him a shy smile.

"I'm fine, thanks, my brothers are going, I'll get them to pick me up a little chocolate."

Nick frowned, "Weasley? Fred and George?" The idea of trusting the twins with getting untampered edibles was clearly being questioned, that much was evident in his tone of voice.

Ginny could only laugh at the reaction. "It's fine, they only mess with Ron's food. Not mine. Plus, I can always ask Percy to pick it up, I trust him more with this sort of thing."

"You, Ron, George, Fred..." Nick motioned as if to ask how many siblings she _had_.

"Percy, Charles and William" Ginny smiled bashfully.

"I always wanted a sister, or a brother" Luna commented.

Nick turned to Luna and with a very straight face. He began to fix her hair, straightened her robes, and refastened the miniature carrot in her hair. "No boys," Nick demanded, rather unexpectedly. With a final brush of the shoulders, he nodded his approval and let Luna turn back to her work.

"Best be careful Luna, brothers can be a right pain most of the time," Ginny warned as well.

Nick's face fell and he shot Ginny a look of miserable brokenheartedness. At first, Ginny appeared surprised and started trying to backpedal, but when she caught sight of the mischievous twinkle in Nick's eyes, she tossed a quill at him.

"You're as bad as the twins, honestly."

( page break here)

That weekend, Fred and George met Nick at the Entrance Hall, and together, the three headed down to Hogsmeade village.

"Lets start at Zonko's Joke Shop," Fred suggested.

"I 'ave few 'ings from Potage's Cauldron Shop, but I meet you at joke shop?" Nick replied.

George flung an arm around the younger boy in an act of comradery. "Na, itty bitty Nickie, we'll come with you. Maybe there will be something to…"

"_Inspire_ us" the twins chorused together.

"Alright, but Honeydukes af'er," Nick said.

The twins nodded in understanding. "Don't you worry, we'll save time for Honeydukes. Promise."


	3. Chapter 3

*note I talked about the gryffindor/ slytherin game as if it already happened in previous chapters, but it happens a bit later from now.

_Chapter 3 _

Nick gently moved Luna's feet from the couch and sat himself down beside her. She folded up her homework and look at him expectantly, eyes wide as ever. Nick pulled out a basket from his pocket and unshrunk it. The basket was as large as four bludgers, and filled to the brim... with chocolate. The entire thing was chock a block full of chocolate.

Luna looked at Nick very seriously, before murmuring, "Did you know your head is filled with Fuzzel Twerks?" That was Luna's unique way of calling him absolutely crazy.

"Eh, it must be the voices in my head," Nick joked goodnaturedly.

"Eight," said Eddie, who had just entered with the others. Hugo and Marcus sat themselves in the chairs opposite Nick, with Eddie perched on the arm of Hugo's chair. "Eight whole words, did you hear him? Most I've ever heard you speak."

"More importantly, where's my chocolate?" Marcus demanded in false anger. Nick simply shrugged.

"Eddie, you scared him off. Why'd you have to point out his speaking habits? He was doing so well, too," Hugo whined.

To this, Nick sent a pillow sailing across the room, where it collided with Hugo's face. Hugo whipped out his wand and quickly redirected the pillow to Marcus, who ducked, just in the nick of time. The pillow went sailing right into the fireplace.

"Well done, Hugo" Eddie mocked.

"Better hope Professor Flitwick doesn't notice _that_," Marcus said. Nick regarded the slightly malicious glint in his eyes and wondered if Professor Flitwick would just _happen _to find out.

"You could tell him it was the Nargles, there are a few in my dorm. They keep taking my shoes," Luna wiggled her bare toes to further her point, "it's all in good fun though."

"Why don't you just summon them, then?" Eddie asked, as if that was an obvious answer.

The three other boys looked at Eddie in mild surprise. Why hadn't anyone else thought of that?

Luna lifted her wand, deciding to test it out. "Accio Luna's shoes" she chanted.

"You sure that won't just call down _all_ of your shoes?" Marcus asked.

"I only thought of the ones I wanted," Luna explained.

Marcus blinked, "Wait, is that how Accio works?"

Hugo gave Marcus a rather sympathetic pat on the shoulder, "I suppose not everyone is truly meant to be in Ravenclaw. But of course, Hufflepuff simply just can't take everyone. We understand this though, and support you in your efforts to fit in."

"Stimulus Carnis" Marcus retorted as he sent a stinging jinx at Hugo's arm.

Hugo grabbed Eddie's arm and pulled him down so that the jinx hit Eddie instead Hugo.

"Hey!" Eddie yelped, "That's it, I'm going to sit by Luna, she's _much_ nicer than you lot. Lovely shoes, by the way." He nudged Luna over a bit to sit beside her.

Nick motioned for Luna to pass him the shoes. Luna gave them over. "_Thieves beware, steal these and lose your hair" _Nick hissed as quietly as he could. He was positive Luna heard him but she didn't seem fazed in the least. The other three boys were still yelling loudly about the sorting hat's methods and, in all likelihood, hadn't noticed a thing.

"It will stop 'hieve" Nick said as he passed the shoes back to Luna.

"You should try listening to the walls with Harry Potter," Luna suggested. This comment seemed to catch the interest of the three bickering boys.

"Luna," Hugo said gently, "I mean this in the nicest way possible, but, um, you're just a smidge crazy".

Luna just smiled.

Just then, Grant Page stormed into the Ravenclaw common room in a whirlwind of parchment, reeking of stress and frustration. "Broda, quidditch practice in ten, move it!" Grant stormed past the group sitting by the fire and stomped his way up to his dorm, slamming a door behind him.

"I'm sorry sister, you'll have to study alone," Nick said softly to Luna.

"That was almost ten words," Hugo congratulated Nick. The others laughed.

Nick ignored them, taking the steps three at a time he booked it up to his dorm room. Haphazardly, Nick flung his books onto his bed and grabbed the neatly folded quidditch gear off the top of his dresser.

Before Nick was even done changing, Grant stormed into Nick's dorm and grabbed him by the collar to drag him back down the stairs, through the halls, and straight to quidditch pitch. Nick managed to wrestle his way out of Grant's grasp on the way, but he still had to fasten his quidditch robes while he just about sprinted to keep up with Grant.

"Captain wants to practice twice a week until our next game, three hours a practice. Apparently, Slytherins have all new brooms." Grant huffed as the two pulled into the quidditch pitch.

"I need to study" Nick pointed out.

Grant sent a "Bombarda" at the grass, and Nick took three decisive steps back.

"Cool it, Page, no one wants to practice _that_ much. The captain can practice on his own if he wants to win that badly. I have O.W.L.s to study for, not to mention that extra credit project Flitwick gave me" one of the beaters complained.

Nick did not bother staying to lament with the rest of them, partly out of fear that the next bombarda would be sent his way. Firm in his decision, Nick mounted his broom and took off into the air, ready to go. Grant tossed him the Quaffle to pass around for a bit. For the most part, all Nick did was dodge flying objects, fight the wind, and pass the ball through the hoops.

"Hey Nick, want to play a little two on one?" the beater offered. Nick slowed to a stop just long enough to give a nod before whizzing off again. Grant was on his tail within seconds.

Nick hopped nimbly up onto the shaft of his broom and leapt into the air just in time to dodge Grant before the boy could go careening into him. He landed perfectly back onto his broom again and tossed the Quaffle into the goal.

When the quaffle was thrown back to him, Nick passed it off to Grant, who then zipped off towards the opposite side of the field. But Nick was quick to catch up. He knocked into Grant with his side and used his hand to knock the ball out of Grant's grasp.

Diving down and nimbly catching the Quaffle, Nick went speeding like a bullet towards the goals at the opposite end of the field.

Just before Nick could get another shot in, the captain called out "Meet at center pitch" while using an over amplified Sonorus charm. The entire team winced and covered their ears as the captain's voice nearly shattered the nearest windows.

"Right, so I've decided that we don't all have to show up to both practices. First practice of the week is mandatory the second is optional, but I'm sticking to the three hour practices. If we're going to win we need to out maneuver the Slytherins and their new brooms and out seek possible the countries finest seeker, no offence August" The captain nodded to the Ravenclaw seeker, who had a potions text charmed to the front of their broom. The seeker wasn't even pretending to pay attention to the Captain as they madly underlined and highlighted the passage.

"August, can't that wait?" the Captain growled.

August flipped him the bird and went back to their work.

"Chasers go practice Chelmondiston Charge on the far post. Beaters stay in center pitch and practice your Transylvanian Tackle. Remember you are only pretending to punch the other player. I don't want any of you sitting out because of excess Blatching fowls. Seeker, August …. August! …. AUGUST! FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS SHINY AND GOLDEN, PAY ATTENTION!"

August, didn't even bother to look up from his tomb. He nipped the snitch from the captain's hand and released it. With very little motivation, August followed the snitch while simultaneously reading the book on his broom.

The captain let out a string of creative curse words before shooing everyone off to their respective jobs. He took the Keeper to the near post and practiced with them.

Nick followed the other Chasers to the far goals. "So what is Chelmondiston Charge? Nick asked.

"Don't you have Quidditch teams in Canada?" One of the spare Chasers joked.

Nick raised a questioning eyebrow, "Yes. The Canadian Moose Jaw Meteorites won 'ainst Scottish Banchory Bangers in the 1990 International Quidditch World Cup".

"Then how don't you know what Chelmondiston Charge is?"

"Different name in Canada" Nick guessed with a shrug.

"Well it is when you stand on your broam and jump, using your momentum to trust the quaffle through the hops" One of the Chasers examined to Nick. "I'll give it a go first, you just do what I do".

Nick watched the specularly unathletic attempt at a Chelmondiston Charge without laughing outright, but he didn't manage to hold back the smirk from his face when he preformed the move about a thousands times better.

And so the practice dragged on for the promised three hours. Nick had always been a fairly strong flyer, but mostly he'd flown on the backs of dragons, or ridden a pegasus across the ocean. Not to mention the few times he had flown a broom, and he'd done so to avoid death- not to throw a large red ball through a hoop. It was, in his humble opinion, quite a lot more fun to play quidditch.

In addition, his dodging skills were improving quickly, which was bound to come in handy at some point during the Hunt. Perhaps there were actually some practical applications he could gain from improving his quidditch skills. The team had agreed to two, three hour practices a week until their first game. After, they would be going straight back to one, one and a half hour practices a week.

Grant and Nick ditched the others after practice and headed down to the dungeons.

"I know why _I'm_ going this way, but why are you, might I ask?" Grant probed his younger teammate.

"Homework," Nick answered, not really knowing what the English equivalent of "_handing in the extra homework the overgrown bat assigned me" _was.

"Getting help or handing in?"

"Second" Nick shuffled behind Grant as they passed a group of slytherins.

"Grant" came a sneer from none other than Marcus Flint, the head of the group.

Grant stiffened, snarled as they passed "Flint."

"Why are you...?" Nick nodded further down the hall towards the dungeons.

Grant grinned, "Personal reason." His gaze was aimed at a female member of the group down the corridor.

Nick looked at Grant in surprise. He honestly hadn't expected the book-devoted Ravenclaws to even _have_ love lives.

"Don't look so surprised, I'm not that antisocial." Grant huffed. He pulled at his cuffs self consciously. Straightening his tie as they got closer to the group.

Nick hummed noncommittally.

"Well, we did meet through a study group. That's really not the point though. And stop looking at me like you're judging me. I'll have you know, since I can see that raised eyebrow, that she is _not_ in fact using me to get better grades."

Nick let Grant try and convince himself of the obvious lie.

"Well she's not! Stop looking like…. like that! We really have something. I know it." Grant gave Nick a friendly shove. "Whatever. What do _you_ know, you're just a teeny tiny third year. Not to mention, you seem to spend most of your time with first years. What on earth would _you_ know about women."

Grant paused and grabbed a hold of Nick's arm, pulling him back. "You and Luna _are_ just friends, yeah? For the love of god, you'd better be, she's a first year."

"She like sister."

"Oh," Grant let go of Nick and they resumed their walk down the corridor. "That's… that's alright then I guess. She really doesn't talk to many people, does she? I've see her with Ginny Weasley, but that's about it." He shrugged, not sure what else to say.

"Snape," Nick motioned towards the potions classroom. He didn't think the potions professor would still be in there, but he really wanted to get away from Grant right now. There was something off putting with the seeing the angry powerhouse that was Grant Page brought to the state of near helplessness over a women.

"Alright, see you in the common room later then" Grant finished, waving goodbye.

Nick approached the potions classroom and took a single, calming breath before opening the classroom door.

Lo and behold, the Bat of the Dungeon was still sitting at his desk, marking papers.

"You've finished your assignment then, I take it." Professor Snape extended a hand expectantly, all the while keeping his eyes on his work.

Nick pulled out his assignment and passed it to the professor.

Snape looked up long enough to give it the briefest of glances. Then he pulled out a piece of neatly folded parchment from somewhere within the stacks of work and passed it to Nick. "This is a list of the potions we will be doing in class, as well as the days we will be brewing them. Read the instructions beforehand, and that's an order. I refuse to continue this little game with you. Class should not be a guessing game. Hand in the potions I assign. Is that Understood?"

Nick took the parchment and unfolded it. To no one's surprise, he didn't recognise the English name of a single potion, but he figured he'd figure them out later. Snape went back to his work, which was an obvious dismissal for Nick.

"Thank you," Nick muttered softly, before turning on his heel and retreating from the room, back out the door.

Nick headed back to the Ravenclaw common room, staying just long enough to change out of his quidditch gear. He noted that Luna was not there.

When he didn't find her in the library, he opted to work on translating the potion names Snape had given him into Parselscript. Thinking of all the potions he was going to be making got Nick into the mood to brewing a few right then, and just moments before curfew, Nick found himself in the secluded sanctuary of the Parselscript library brewing a Murtlap Essence in an old cauldron, to help heal all the little scrapes and cuts he'd gotten in herbology.

"_Has the quality of this institution really fallen so much that your absence can go unnoticed?" _The portrait above the fireplace asked five minutes after curfew had come into effect.

Nick shrugged. "_We'll find out, I suppose. I keep my curtains drawn shut around my bed most of the time, so my roommates will probably just assume I am already asleep."_

The painting gave a long, suffering sigh. "_And I suppose there is no way for your head of house to simply _check _that everyone is, in fact, in the dormitory where they should be?"_

"_If there is, Professor Flitwick has never used it before. I see people come and go from the dorm at all hours of the night."_

"_They do not send you up from the common room after a time?" _The painting questioned in surprise.

"_Nope" _Nick hissed the word with a pop, in a half-English, half-parseltongue fashion. The room was silent for a moment as Nick minced the pickled Murtlap tentacles before gently lowering them into the cauldron. He looked up to notice the painting watching him work.

"_You would make an adequate potion master" _the painting noted.

"_Thank you, I will keep that in mind when the Hunt is over," _

"_The Hunt?" _The painting asked.

Nick paused his moment for a fraction of a second. "_I don't really know how to explain it. I honestly don't even know that much about it. I do know that a man who wanted to be immortal made a terrible decision, a very long time ago, and now a friend of a friend can't go home."_

"_Thank you, for that remarkably vague explanation." Professor Slytherin said dryly._

Nick shrugged, "_It's the best one I've ever been given, actually." _He shifted back on his heels to watch the cauldron simmer, waiting for the pale orange liquid to change to an electric blue.

"_The potion loses potency if bottled in glass. It is better to use a bronze flask" _the portrait pointed out absently.

Nick's hand paused over the glass vial he was about to grab and moved to the small store of empty bronze ones he had.

"_That is an interesting potion set you've got there." _

Nick looked at the portable Chinese medicine cabinet. It looked like a redwood box when all folded up, but when unfolded it became a very large medicine cabinet showered with preserving charms and anti-theft wards and all sorts of magic protections that Nick had never been able to identify. The best part was that the magic had been done several hundred years ago by a very powerful shaman, along with the aid of several very powerful spirits. The magic was beyond what most witches and wizards had ever heard of, and even the most powerful magical creatures knew next to nothing about shaman magic unless they were a shaman themselves.

The few times people had tried to steal from Nick's potion stocks, the attempts ended rather violently for the would-be thieves.

"_It was a gift" _Nick explained as he ran a gentle finger over the old outline of the cabinet, still protected with spells to ward away the stray pickpocket.

"_You know what I think?" the portrait man asked, "You're a Slytherin, who somehow ended up in Ravenclaw house by mistake, and you walk around with a Gryffindor-style potions set. Such a curious person you are." The man's lips pursed together in a painted line, stubborn in his assumption and proud of his own judge of character. _

Nick took a second glance at his cabinet as he poured his potion into a bronze flask. It was in fact a very bright red, with a smattering of gold in the design. It _did_ look like the sort of thing a Gryffindor would own, Nick thought to himself.

"_Have you thought of a memory for your patronus yet?" _

Nick sighed as he scrubbed out his cauldron and set it aside. "_Not yet, but I'm sure something will come to mind soon enough." _

"_Best sleep on it then. Now, it is late, I suggest you go back to your dorms before I find reason to wake your head of house myself and give him a stern lecture on the safety of students."_

Nick grinned, and gave a mocking bow to the portrait. "_Invisible. Silent" _he hissed another simple enchantment for himself and his things before slipping back out into the corridor. He went unnoticed for most of the journey, though a stray cat appeared to notice him. She didn't seem terribly concerned with his presence though, and even allowed him to pet her for a bit. For a moment, Nick feared it was Professor Mcgonagall, but since the Professor would never in a _million_ years let a student pet her, Nick figured it must have been someone's familiar.

(Page break)

The next day, Nick came down to the common room to find Luna dressed head to toe in black and orange. She had a pumpkin leaf crown on her head and two pumpkin earrings dangling down, just above her shoulders.

"Feeling Festive?" Nick asked, as the decked out girl in question gathered her things before hurrying to walk with Nick down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"It just seemed like a pumpkin sort of day today," Luna answered airily. Nick noticed that she seemed to have a sort of skip in her step. "You know, I had the biggest surprise this morning."

"Oh?"

"Those nargles didn't steal my shoes…. Also, there are now two girls in my dorm who seem to be missing their hair."

Nick somehow managed to keep a very straight face. "H-how very strange," he commented as innocently as he could.

"Indeed. Maybe it was the Nargles who stole their hair. I told them as much. I don't think they agreed, though."

Nick made a humming noise in agreement, but when he caught sight of the mischievous glint in Luna's eyes he couldn't keep the laughter in any longer. In a completely uncharacteristic outburst, he lost it on the spot.

"You really shouldn't laugh, nargles can be very nasty creatures when crossed," Luna skipped down the hall with an air of innocent naivete she always seemed to carry, but Nick had seen those twinkling eyes. That girl knew precisely what had happened. The precious thing was the best actor he'd ever seen.

When Eddie, Marcus and Hugo came down to breakfast their eyes were all on Luna. "Any clue what happened to the other first year girls? I heard screaming this morning."

"Nargles," was all Luna said, and left it at that.

"Ah… well that makes sense I guess," said Hugo. He turned to the other two and offered up a confused shrug.

"Excited for the Halloween feast?" Eddie asked Hugo.

"Oh, you better believe it. Luna? Clearly you're looking forward to it," Hugo noted Luna's outfit.

"What makes you think that?" Luna asked curiously.

Hugo blinked, "Well… your…" he motioned around his head in an effort to indicate the pumpkin crown Luna was wearing. All the while, Luna watched him patiently as if waiting for the boy to form a coherent sentence. Finally, Hugo found it was easier to just give it up. He looked desperately at Luna, begging her to see what he was trying to say but she only kept the same naive air that she always had.

"So…. Nick," Marcus tactlessly cut in, "Ever been to a halloween feast?"

Nick nodded, "Two in the U.S., one in Canada, and one in Costa Rica."

"Bet Hogwarts will put them all to shame, the house elves really go all out for Halloween," Eddie gushed.

Nick shrugged, "Costa Rica is... wild" Nick stared off in the distance for a brief moment, remembering the beach parties and bonfires. The magic had flown freely at the time. Several colonies of Mermaids had come and lit up the ocean with bright red and orange lights. The muggles had sent up fireworks into the sky, and witches and wizards transfigured nearly everything they could get their hands on into halloween-themed figures.

Nick specifically remembered a very inebriated Wizard flying multiple pumpkin races with Alex, until the two of them went crashing into one another and landed on a giant, fluffy pumpkin floating in the ocean. Nick had had to swim out to the pair in order to hover charm them back to the beach. Several mermaids swam and chatted with him as he paddled to shore. Not knowing how to respond underwater and not speaking anything other than parseltongue, he had had to endure the entire journey nodding awkwardly and trying to keep his breath long enough to not keep diving back to the surface. Mermaids considered it terribly rude to leave a conversation just to go to the surface.

Halloween had been the night the magical governments and the muggle government all got together to sign a cross-species, cross-cultural agreement. It was a huge moment in Costa Rica's history and celebrated as such. The party started at daybreak on Halloween morning, and ended well into the following day.

"You look unconvinced," remarked Eddie, "but you'll see Hogwarts has the best halloween celebration ever." He said this with a certain level of conviction in his voice, one which Nick normally reserved for his repeated declaration that old Moldy Shorts was not a proper Slytherin, and was in no way a part of the family.

But really! Seeing as they still had to go to classes, Hogwarts Halloween was already below Costa Rica. That being said, Canada and the US had both begun the partying late in the evening, so there was at least still hope on _that_ front.

Classes dragged painfully. Charms was particularly boring, and Professor Flitwick covered the theory of the cheering charm, but ran out of time before students got a chance to practice.

"How anyone can make a class on cheering charms sound boring is beyond me" grumbled Adrian Pucey from Slytherin.

Despite the fact that Eddie himself had been dozing off for most of the class, he, Marcus and Hugo jumped to the defense of their head of house.

"Felix" Nick sang, casting the cheering charm on Adrian, smiling cheekily at the suddenly yet deliriously happy Slytherin.

"Oi, what'd you hit him with?" Miles Bletchley, another Slytherin, demanded.

Nick shot the boy a rather condescending look before sending a sudden "Felix" to him as well.

"Not fair," Eddie grumbled.

Nick sighed, and turned to face the group of Slytherins and Ravenclaws walking as a group towards the great hall for lunch. Much to everyone's literal delight, he sent a "Felix" to each and every one of them. Adrian was even kind enough to return the favor, casting a perfect "Felix" at Nick.

By the time the large gaggle of students made it to the great hall, they were all laughing and joking as a single group. The usual house and grade-based tension was forgotten.

"Oi, what happened to you?" Grant Page asked with suspicion as the Ravenclaw third years made themselves comfortable at the table.

"Charms" Eddie answered. When Grant didn't seem to be catching on, Eddie raised his wand and sent a "Felix" his way.

"Ah, that makes sense," Grant responded, dreamy for a second. "Why'd you cast it on the Slytherins though?"

Eddie, Marcus and Hugo turned to Nick for an explanation, but Nick paid them no mind. He was far too busy listening to Luna as she explained the benefits of not having any hair to the other first year girls.

Hugo noticed where he was looking. "I think the firsties could use a Felix." Hugo raised his wand, but Nick caught his hand and gently lowered it back to the table. He gave Hugo a vicious grin.

"They're only first years" Hugo tried to point out in forced seriousness, but he couldn't keep the smile off his face, nor the joy out of his voice.

The voice of one of the first year girls floated over to the group of boys. "That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard, _Loony Lovegood_. I bet you wouldn't be such a terrible witch if your mother hadn't gone and blown herself up."

That did it. The effects of the Felix charm seemed to fade considerably for everyone who had heard the vile comment.

Much to Nick's surprise, Marcus was up from his seat before he was. He quickly got Luna out of her seat and moved her between himself and Nick at the table. Hugo reached over and retrieve Luna's plate before any other the other first years could do anything to her food.

Grant turned back to his own roommate to discuss their own charm work, and Nick, Luna and the boys began a debate over the different study schedules they had devised for exams.

"You really should give them their hair back," Luna whispered, once she and Nick excused themselves to head to the library.

"No. You heard what they said," Nick growled.

Luna shook her head. The air of innocence and naivete seemed to fade considerably. "They were hurt, and they lashed out. You do it too when you don't understand what people are saying. I've seen you growl at Eddie before when he's trying to explain the homework to you. It's like that." Luna paused as they passed a portrait of a young man observing the many wands lying on the counter in front of him. "I know you are trying to help, but you did hurt them. I thought it was funny this morning, but I don't really think so anymore. It's only a prank if everyone finds it funny. And like you saw back there, they didn't find it funny."

Nicked nodded in understanding. It really _was_ a rather vicious prank. He resolved to fix it at dinner tonight.

Luna herself found a table with Ginny in the library. Nick mostly worked on his Draconifers Spell for transfigurations class. He created a small group of dragons by transfiguring smaller objects like quills, books and scarves. unfortunately, he found he could never get the scales quite right.

Luna was helping Ginny with her charms homework when Adrian Pucey sauntered over to the table. Ginny, the ever fearless Gryffindor, glared back at the third year Slytherin.

Adrian sent a haughty sneer at the first years and turned to Nick.

"I hear you are good at potions." Adrian waited for a confirmation from Nick, but after a moment's pause, he carried on, "Myself and a couple of other Slytherins were planning on going over that potion Snape said we would be doing in class tomorrow."

When Adrian refused to elaborate, Ginny kindly cut in, "Nick, I think he's asking for help."

Adrian glared at Ginny again, but he nodded. "Well?" He asked Nick. Adrian appeared to only just notice the collection of dragons on the table. "Tell you what, I can teach you how to get those scales right if you do this for us."

Nick grinned at this. "Deal."

"Right, well, we were going to head down to the dungeons now. Professor Snape lets us use the classroom when he doesn't need them to teach."

"Blatant favoritism." Ginny muttered.

If Professor Flitwick wasn't his head of house, Nick might have been inclined to point out that the charms professor often allowed Ravenclaws the chance to do side projects. He was even known to let sixth and seventh years borrow from his personal library from time to time. He certainly didn't extend the same opportunities to the students of other houses.

Furthermore, Professor Mcgonagall was notoriously lenient on punishing _her_ house. She was fair, of course, just... more fair to her house then she was to the others.

Nick didn't say any of this because, A. he didn't really think it would change Ginny's perspective; B. he hadn't the faintest idea how to say all that in English; and C. the girl would probably faint from shock if he started hissing parseltongue at her.

Adrian gave Nick's arm a gentle tug. Nick gathered his stuff together and transfigured the dragons back to their original forms, before following the small group of the Slytherins to the dungeons.

There were only about five Slytherins in the group and they were all third years, though Nick only knew Adrian's name. Not that it ever mattered. Nick was known in the school for not saying much so he usually got away with not knowing names.

This time was no different. Adrain lead the group down the twist and turns of the stone hallways until they arrived at the potion classroom.

Adrian pulled the door open and ushered the others through like he was perfectly at home. Much to Nick's surprise, Professor Snape sat at his desk marking papers and potions. He only briefly glanced up at the group before turning back to his work at hand.

The other four Slytherins began pulling out the ingredients listed in the textbook, much to Nick's relief. He skimmed over the instructions and looked for words he recognised. Between the ingredients on the table and the instructions he understood, Nick was able to piece it all together. Pulling out the first listed ingredients he began show the others how to make the potion.

Part way through the practical potion study session, the world nearly came to an end.

Nick looked up for a brief moment and caught the strict-as-sin Potions Professor... _smiling_. Mind you, It wasn't the sweet and kind smile that Luna favored. It was more of a slight, upwards twitch of the lips. It was a slightly more of positive smirk, really. Still, for the potions master, that definitely counted as a smile.

Nick was quick to jerk his head back to the cauldrons in front of the Slytherins. He managed to casually knock the Eye of Newt out of Adrian's hand before the idiot could put it into his own cauldron. Nick grabbed a pinch of Newt's Tail, and added that to the cauldron instead. He gave the liquid three slow stirs counter-clockwise and pointed to the step that the potion had reached on the parchment before Adrian.

"Can you read English?" Adrian asked, curious.

The other two Slytherins gaped at Adrian in surprise. It was a rather thoughtless question, and much more likely to come from a Gryffindor.

Nick forced down his surprise. His self preservation told him not to show weakness in front of anyone from the Slytherin house.

"No, not really. I just translate" Nick explained as casually as he could. He motioned for one of the other Slytherins to chop and ingredient more finely.

The boy obeyed but looked up at Nick as he added the ingredients to his cauldron, asking, "How can you do potions then? Or Herbology? Or charms?"

Nick's smile faltered. Those were some good questions. How on earth _had_ he been surviving his classes? He couldn't precisely walk around with his English-to-Parselscript dictionary. The only time he got to translate was in the relative safety of his own bed for an hour or so every night. Mostly, he just guessed his way through the homework. The essays he wrote were terrible, and his grades generally reflected that.

"If you help me with the practical portion of class, I can look over your essay" Adrian offered.

Nick smiled and nodded. Generally, Ravenclaws bought and traded help with knowledge. Since all of Nick's books were in Parseltongue, he never had anything to trade.

"Professor Snape, does this look acceptable?" One of the other two slytherins had bottled his potion and taken it to the professor for examination. He'd done so a bit too soon, and Professor Snape said as much. When Adrian took up his own potion, Snape merely nodded in satisfaction.

Nick helped clean out the cauldrons, wordless scolding Adrian for his sloppy clean up and showing the small group how to properly care for their gear. Much to Nick's annoyance this meant that he redid most of the clean up after the Slytherins' lazy attempts.

When the Slytherins were done they left the class for the the Halloween Feast, but Snape called Nick to his desk before Nick could follow.

"The Headmaster failed to inform me that you do not, in fact, speak or read English fluently. Had I known you were an ESL student I assure you I would have tailored your work accordingly. As it stands, I will revise the work you have already handed in and adjust your mark accordingly. See me after class Monday for your revised criteria for future assignments. That is all, Mr. Borda".

Nick blinked twice, then slowly turned and headed for the door to the hall. "Thank you, Professor" He called over his shoulder before he left, but Snape didn't make any indication that he'd noticed or heard.

(Page break )

Luna grabbed Nick when he entered the beautifully decorated Great Hall and dragged him over to one of the Pumpkins. She proceeded to give the most bizarre explanation of Pumpkin carving in ancient times that Nick had ever heard. But he noticed that she stood just slightly out of the way of Nick's view of the other first year girls, but out of view from the professors. He could easily use his Parselmagic without someone noticing.

"_Cancel Curse" _Nick hissed at the girls. There was no immediate change, as the hair would normally grow back naturally. Luna sent Nick a rather pointed look and he cast a spell for the girl's hair to regrow faster. He also made sure the hair was styled, and was enchanted to temporarily change color for the halloween festivities.

Luna turned to look at Nick's handiwork.

"I've had to disguise myself and others fairly frequently." Nick muttered as he tried to explain away his talent.

Luna nodded understandingly. "Very useful. Well, we really should go eat."

The food was, as Eddie had predicted, divine. There was no great party afterwards, though. When everyone had eaten their fill, they simply went to bed. It was a bit of a let down in Nick's opinion.

Eddie, Marcus and Hugo had looped Nick into a conversation, comparing Halloween traditions on their way out of the Great Hall when the students in front of the abruptly came to a halt.

Written in blood on the wall were the ominous words, "THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE."

A rather bewildered second-year Harry Potter stood between his two friends: one of Ginny's older brothers, and the bushy-haired genius girl.

The Weasley twins stood not far behind them, looking both horrified and somehow awestruck at the same time.

What was more, hanging from the wall was the cat that Nick had run into the other day. The poor thing looked stiff as a board, as well as upside down.

If Europeans hadn't been know to absolutely loathe Parseltongues, Nick would have suggested a way to unpetrify the poor cat. However, fear of being labeled as the Devil Incarnate and being thrown into Azkaban kept Nick quet. Not to mention, everyone would surely think he was the Heir… of whatever it was the author was the heir to.

"Heir?" Nick asked Marcus quietly as the Headmaster and a few of the professors swept past, harried and giving orders.

"Heir of Salazar Slytherin," Marcus whispered faintly, "It's said the Founder left a monster under the school when he left, in the hopes that one of his descendants would let the monster out to kill all the Muggleborns and Half-bloods."

Everyone looked shocked and a bit fearful.

Nick was more outraged to see that, once again, someone was soiling the good name of Slytherin.

"Everyone back to your common rooms," One of the professors called. The Ravenclaw prefect called the attention of the Ravenclaws and started herding them towards the common room.

Eddie's head whipped around to see Marcus and Nick enter their dorm room. "You really believe he's the heir?" he asked.

Hugo flopped himself down on Eddie's bed and grabbed the box of Every Flavour Beans off the boy's bedside table, noting, "I certainly hope not. He's supposed to be our saviour, isn't he?"

"He might be, but he is a bit… off" Eddie observed.

"He better not start targeting half bloods" Marcus declared haughtily. There was a slight quiver in his voice, which none of the other boys commented on.

"Broda, that's not in the pureblood 28 is it?" Hugo asked Nick. The boy was probably trying to comfort Marcus in some roundabout way, but it only made Nick feel a tad uncomfortable.

"I'm not from England" Nick pointed out. This was definitely not the time to point out that he was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. "I am a pureblood" he pointed out as an afterthought.

"Any idea if the Broda has any ties to any Ancient families from Europe?" Eddie asked.

Does the family of make-believe count?' Nick thought to himself, since his last name had been grabbed from the author of a book Nick had been gifted "_Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning._" It was a book written entirely in English that had been given to Nick, and he had properly re-gifted said book at the first opportunity.

"I really don't think so" Nick told his roommates. With that, he grabbed his things to get ready for bed.

Hugo looked at him, surprised. "You're going to bed, just like that? Potter might try to kill you at the first opportunity, and you're just going to go to bed."

Nick simply shrugged, changed, and did just that.


	4. Chapter 4

"Fred, can you transfigure things en masse?" Nick asked. The twins paused in their exploration of Nick's Potion Cabinet, which they had found fascinating.

"''Fraid not" Fred said.

"Why'd ya ask?" George leaned against the least decrepit desk in the abandoned classroom. The only desk Nick trusted enough to be working on.

Nick pointed his wand at the abandoned scarf in front of him and transfigured it into a perfectly formed, blue dragon. "Dragon wars at dinner" Nick said, in hopes that the twins would catch onto the idea. It would be an epic prank, to say the least.

Naturally, they did. In fact they grinned wildly and seemed to be scheming before they even opened their mouths. "We _do,_ however, know where they keep the cups and plates between meals."

"And there happens to be a way to delay the effects of a transfiguration, but we'll have to do that part individually."

Nick nodded. "Well I'll only be a few more minutes. Scrub out that other cauldron, I'll finish up here."

The twins grinned at Nick proudly. "You've come a long way my, apprentice," said George and Fred.

Nick rolled his eyes. He scrubbed down the cauldrons and the table he was working on until they all shone. They were the only thing room that was clean. Everything else, including the twins at this point, were covered in a thick layer of dust. Old ratty curtains, eaten away by moths and mice hung loosely over the windows that looked out into the green tinted water of the Great Lake.

Rusted torch holders lined the walls, all holding the slowly decaying remains of old torches that now stood for the homes of half a dozen different wood insects. Nick liked the torches because they often provided him with a selection of fresh bugs he needed for potion work right at his fingertips.

The location wasn't bad either. It was only a handful of doors down from the Slytherin Library and right across from the secret staircase that lead directly lead up to the seventh floor and didn't move constantly.

But the real seller for him Nick was the window that looked out at the lake. When Nick worked on his own, the occasional very brave merchild would swim up to the window and watch him work. With the twins and their noise, though, Nick never saw so much as a pet toad swim by.

When the group left the potion room Nick flicked a very basic locking spell behind them. The twins flanked him on either side as they led him through the twist and turns of the halls. They continued until they came to a painting of a lush green meadow. One of the twins picked out the only boulder in the landscape with a point of his finger, and the painting swung open for the three of them. Inside room behind the painting were neatly arranged shelves with all the cutlery, plates, bowls and goblets used at meals.

The group put their things down at the door. Fred and George quickly explained the spell to Nick, and together the three got to work setting up all the transfiguration spells that were needed.

(Page break)

When lunch came, the twins were practically twitching with the anticipation. Both Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Snape eyed the twins, but they said nothing. Perhaps it was just a force of habit, to suspect the twins of being… up to something.

Halfway into the meal, when the chatter was at its loudest, the latecomers were present and those quick to leave hadn't quite finished.

That was when the goblets all over the great all turned dragons. Each and every of them. Those at the Gryffindor table were red; the ones at the Ravenclaw table, blue; Hufflepuff goblets were yellow, Slytherin dragons were green; and the goblets from the head table were a shimmering gold.

After a few moments of stunned silence from many a student and professor, the miniature dragons took to the sky. The little creatures screeched, and attacked one another. It was quite a dramatic battle: Dragons fought tooth and nail; those that were mortally wounded popped back into their goblet form and clattered dully to the ground. Most of the students screamed in surprise when their goblets took to the sky. However, as the reptilian battle raged on, students began cheering for their house teams. It had become a competition.

Professor Snape looked absolutely furious, but Professor Mcgonagall appeared to be doing her best to force down a smile.

"Go Sparky!" Fred yelled over the other roars of the students. One of the Red Gryffindor dragons suddenly began to breathe fire. Targeting specifically the Slytherin Dragons.

"Oi, you cheater!" Marcus Flint bellowed from the Slytherin tables. He pointed at one of the green dragons and yelled a spell Nick wasn't familiar with. The green dragon started spewing fireballs on command.

Suddenly, the sixth and seventh years students from nearly every table were adding modifications of their own to the warring goblet dragons.

Headmaster Dumbledore let the Dragon Wars wage on for nearly half an hour, perfectly calm about the entire ordeal, before he stood up and clapped his hands together.

In an instant, the dragons vanished and goblets reappeared in front of each student.

"Fred and George Weasley... you have detention with Mr. Filch, tonight at eight," Professor Mcgonagall announced as Dumbledore took his seat once again. If any of the professors knew of Nick's involvement in the prank, they didn't bother to condemn him for it.

"That... was _bloody_ brilliant!" Eddie gushed. He was grinning ear to ear and admiring his goblet as if it would suddenly leap back into dragon form.

"Why not get a dragon familiar?" Nick motioned to say he meant a miniature dragon, of course. The Ravenclaws sitting by Nick looked at him confusion. "China make" Nick tried to explain. He looked at Luna for help.

"It's true. You can order miniature dragons from China. I read once that they can come in any colour, or every colour," Luna explained. She plucked a radish from a dish in the middle of the table and made it larger, added a feather charm on it, hollowed it out with a butter-knife from her place setting, and placed it on her head as a brand new hat.

The Ravenclaws all looked at the crazy-looking girl, then back to Nick. Nick eyed Luna's hat and turned back to the observers with a shrug.

"My friend… makes… them" Nick tried to elaborate.

"Breeds?" Eddie offered.

Nick nodded. "Breeds them."

Cho Chang hummed thoughtfully from her seat. "How expensive are they?"

Nick shrugged, "I can ask."

Cho nodded enthusiastically.

Nick pulled parchment and a quill from his bag and quickly penned a note to his friend from China. It would probably take a while to get the message there and back, but owls were remarkably resourceful creatures, so it was hard to say how long it would take.

Nick waved goodbye and gathered his things to head off to the owlery.

At the owlery, He got one of the school owls to deliver the letter. Once that was done, he headed back down towards his History of Magic class.

He was fairly close to the desired classroom when a sound caught his attention. It was a voice, a hissing, and as he listened closer Nick could just vaguely hear the words, "_Kill… Kill… Kill… Kill" _coming from somewhere in the walls.

Nick paused and looked around, but there was no one in the vicinity. "_Kill? Kill who?" _Nick called out. (*maybe add more descriptions of Nick's reaction here)

"_Must protect the school… Kill… Kill… Kill" _The wall hissed back.

Nick followed the voice down the hall. "_Protect the school from what?" _Nick asked. But the voice had faded away. Nick could hear more voices up ahead. It was Eddie, Marcus and Hugo, heading towards History of Magic.

Nick tried to backpedal out of view to go look for the beast behind the wall, but he'd been spotted.

"So, you send that letter off?" Eddie asked.

"Er… yeah" Nick answered, his gaze falling on the stone walls, now silent.

Hugo stepped in front of him. "Are you alright? You're pale as a ghost."

"Translucent, not pale" Hugo muttered behind Marcus, but the other boy ignored him.

"I'm fine, let's just head to class" Nick insisted. The others did not seem convinced, but they let Nick lead them down the hall to the dusty History classroom.

Like Practically every other student present, Marcus, Hugo, Eddie and Nick all set about using their class time to do pretty much anything but listen to Binns lecture. After all, they were all only present for the participation marks. Anyone who truly wanted to learn the material read about it. Those who actually listen to Binns lecture did so to lull them to sleep. A particularly brave student even brought a shrunken pillow and blanket that they set up at the very back of the class to catch up on their sleep.

Marcus set up a chessboard and he and Hugo started to play. Eddie pulled out a cauldron, a cutting board, and a few potion ingredients, and started working on the potion they would be doing in class later that day. He made notes about what went well, and what didn't, as he went.

Nick pulled out his Herbology essay and got to work. When he couldn't think of the word he wanted in English, he made little notes in parselscript here and there.

"Hey Nick, what are those?" Eddie asked when he caught sight of the strange scribbles on Nick's page.

Nick's mind blanked, unsure of how to respond as he stared at the parselscript scratchwork. He probably shouldn't have been writing in his native tongue, especially when others could see what he was writing. But then again, Eddie didn't really sound like he had any idea that the writing was tied to Parseltongue at all.

"Doodles," Marcus suggested when he saw the writing. "It means little pictures. Like this," Marcus held up his charms homework and showed Nick the little stickmen scribbled around the border.

Nick went with it. "Yeah, doodles". He silently thanked his roommate for the handy explanation and went back to his work. Much to his surprise and amusement, the other boys bought the excuse and didn't question him about it any further.

After class, he headed off in search of the voice in the wall, but Fred and George found him and coerced him into helping them plan another prank. So, Nick spent the rest of the day brewing Hair-Raising Potion and Volubilis Potion. The two concoctions would be put into the food the following night, to change the voices and hair of the entire student body. Unfortunately for Nick, that meant brewing several batches, since he only had one small cauldron.

The twins hovered around him, chatting about life and telling him about all the new inventions they had created. They explained all kinds of potions they wanted to make, and Nick explained a few ways they might do that. He surprised himself when he was able to suggest a few English books through which the twins could look for ideas.

The next evening, Grant Page pulled Nick out of his exploration through the halls to go watch the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin quidditch match.

"Captain said we have to go. Apparently, he's taking notes to help with our next practice so we'll be prepared when we face either team" Grant grumbled, equally unhappy that he was giving up a perfectly good day of studying to go watch quidditch.

Personally, Nick just wanted to find the voice that has spoken of killing, but not having the evening to spend in the library sounded pretty miserable, too.

"Let's sit with the Gryffindors," Grant suggested.

"You can sit with us," Flora and Hestia Carrow chorused. Nick turned to see the two third year Slytherin girls dressed head to toe in fashionable green outerwear.

Grant huffed, rejected the offer, and walked off. Nick frowned as he watched his teammate head over to the Gryffindor side.

He turned to the twins for an explanation.

"Abigail Montague broke off their… relationship yesterday" Flora explained.

Nick winced. He briefly thought about going to sit beside Grant to offer some moral support, but when he caught the glare the boy was giving the entire slytherin side, Nick decided 'Moral support be damned,' and let the Carrow sister lead him to the Slytherin seats.

"What are you doing here, Broda?" one of the fifth year Slytherins spat.

Nick made to motion that he was only there to watch the game, but the Carrow sisters stepped in. "He's out guest, Warrington" The girls delivered Warrington's name with the same disdain the boy had used towards 'Broda.' At first, Nick felt vaguely offended that the muggle name he'd stolen from a book was being insulted, but then, it was hard to feel genuinely hurt about a name he had almost no connection with.

Warrington didn't seem terribly impressed, but when Marcus Flint, captain of the Slytherin team, motioned for Warrington to back off, Nick and the Carrow sisters were left in peace.

Being a born and raised Slytherin, Nick was in part pleased to be accepted to some degree by his namesake Hogwarts house. Then again, the house was known for producing a good number of rather nasty individuals, so perhaps it would be better to avoid the house entirely. The chance that there might, however, be an underground parseltongue community won out, and he remained happily seated between the twins as they watched the game proceed.

He cheered loudly for every goal, and winced with all the others when they noticed that the snitch by Malfoy's ear. Nick doubly winced in knowing how angry the seeker's teammates would be for this mistake, and the punishment they would undoubtedly inflict upon him if he lost them the game.

When Harry Potter was blasted to the ground due to a rogue bludger, there were a few rather cruel cheers from a certain portion of the audience. The Carrow sisters were the first to visibly wince when Professor Lockhart approached the downed Gryffindor seeker.

"Poor boy, I wouldn't want that fraud treating _my_ injuries," Flora Carrow whispered.

"Don't you love him?" Nick teased the two girls.

The twins gave identical, shy smiles. "He's very handsome" fawned Flora.

"But about as bright as a troll" Hestia concluded.

The Carrow sisters both let out little squeaks of revulsion as they watched the professor in question bend back Potter's hand to touch his arm.

"I do believe the idiot's vanished all the bones in Potter's arm" someone commented in the background.

"Ouch," Nick muttered.

"Come on, game's over, best leave now before everyone else does." One of the Carrow sisters led Nick out of the stadium. It was a cool autumn day, and the wind gave the trio rosy cheeks.

"It's going to hurt to have all those bones regrown," Flora said. "It happened to me once."

"I did apologize!" Hestia whined. She pulled on her sister's arm, trying to keep her from going into detail.

Flora's eyes danced brightly as she continued, "Sister dearest wants to be a healer…" Nick turned his head to look at the girl attentively. Hestia let out a small whimper of embarrassment and barred her face from view, dropping it onto her sister's shoulder, "I fell off my broom and broke my arm. I was just going to go to Pomfrey to have it mended, but sister _dearest_ wanted to have a go at mending it herself. She said she'd been reading up on healing spells and… and I trusted her good judgement..."

"We were in first year" Hestia exclaimed.

Flora's head bobbed in agreement, "Dear sister here, only in first year and she managed to vanish an _entire_ bone. Mind you, not as many as Professor Lockhart managed today but it's a _start_" Flora teased, her voice dripping in a sarcastic impression of the utterly useless Professor Lockhart, "You're going to make _such_ a great healer one day."

"Thank you, sister," Hestia huffed, "I'll have you know that I will indeed make a great healer one day. I got accepted as a temporary assistant at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries this summer. With that kind of experience I will be an excellent healer."

Flora let the sarcasm fade to genuine sisterly adoration. "I know, but that doesn't mean I can't tease you from now until then."

"I'm impressed," Nick said to Hestia. He wanted to say more, to ask her about the application process, and why she didn't work with Pomfrey in the meantime. But he hated struggling with words in front of strangers, and he really didn't know the Carrow sisters all that well.

"You should see if Professor Lockhart will give you advice about being famous." Flora commented thoughtfully.

Hestia puffed up her chest and strutted forward like a peacock. "You know," she said, pausing dramatically to grin over her shoulder at her small audience, "Celebrity is as celebrity does." Nick grinned and applauded.

Flora fell into a giggling fit, remarking "Oh he's _just_ like that!"

"What about you, Nick? What will you do? Adrian says you're practically a potions master already. Even Professor Snape suggested asking for your help for the practical portion of Potions."

Nick looked at the sisters in shock. This was the first he was hearing of Snape's praise, or his suggesting that he could help the snakes in Potions. That was high praise indeed.

"Come on, haven't you seen your grade in his class? You're even beating _Hermione Granger_. Marcus Flint says he's never heard of anyone getting that good a grade in Professor Snape's class before." When the sisters saw Nick's blank expression, they sighed and made a waving motion for Nick to carry on.

Nick thought for a moment, then said, "Travel." He couldn't very well explain the Hunt to the Carrow sisters, but it basically came down to a lot of traveling.

Flora nodded thoughtfully. "I hope I can travel." Her sister gave her a pointed look, but Flora only scoffed. "Did you want to stay here and wait around to see if Father can arrange a marriage to Crabbe or Goyle?" Hestia winced at the thought. "No, I thought not. And neither do I. Father will approve of you putting off marriage to go to school and become a healer. If you do exceptionally well, he may even let you arrange your _own_ marriage to help your career. I have no such ambitious, so father will want me married the weekend after I've graduated."

"Where I come from, if you don't want to get married, you don't" Nick said. Which was hands down the longest English sentence he had ever said to a stranger to date.

"Where do you come from?" Flora asked.

"Canada" Nick answered automatically.

"Why the accent? I thought Canadians speak English?" Hestia asked.

"French Canadian?" Flora offered.

Nick managed to keep his face blank, though he was just about dying of laughter on the inside. Luckily, a distraction in the form of Luna walking towards the trio stopped Nick from internally injuring himself as he tried to keep the laughter at bay.

"Colin Creevey's been petrified," Luna said when she reached the group.

"Well, hello to you too," Flora replied dryly.

"I better go," said Nick. He nodded politely to the Carrow sisters before letting Luna lead him away. "Professor Flitwick wants us in the common room?" he asked Luna as they walked towards the Ravenclaw corridor.

When they reached the common room, they found a place on the floor with Eddie, Marcus and Hugo. Professor Flitwick came in a short time later, and gave a rather _un_noteworthy speech on the importance of traveling as a group.

(page break)

For the next two weeks, Nick spent most of his time either with Luna and Ginny, the Carrow sisters, or his dorm mates. He helped the Twins pull a grand total of three more pranks. Two on the Slytherin quidditch team, and the last on the entire school.

The latter took more planning than they were originally hoping. Lee Jordan ended up volunteering his services as a distraction for the house elves, and Nick had to give a hand for getting the Volubilis Potion into the food.

Still, three nights before the Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw quidditch game Nick sat at dinner watching Luna's hair slowly raise until it was, like everyone else's hair, standing straight on end.

The chatter in the great hall slowly rose several octaves in pitch.

By the end of the meal, the entire school sounded as if they had inhaled helium. A silent and fuming Professor Mcgonagall grabbed the both of the twins, and to the surprise of everyone present, Nick and Lee as well. With the boys in tow, she led them down to Filch's office to serve detention right then and there.

"Reckon she'll be any madder if she drinks the pumpkin juice?" Lee asked the group,his voice still several octaves above normal range.

Nick shrugged, "Dumbledore looked happy enough." It was true. The eccentric old man looked positively thrilled when his beard had turned a shocking purple colour. Snape was... less than thrilled when his black hair turned a very deep shade of green. He was probably less upset than he would have been if his hair had turned, say, a pink as bright as Flitwick's.

Filch hobbled into his office with a bang. "You two with me, you two stay here." Filch hobbled off again with the twins dutifully following after.

Nick looked around the office. The whole place smelled of mildew and rotting food. There were several boxes marked "Punishment Slips." But a drawer in a desk near the back of the stack was labeled, "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous."

Excellent.

Nick grinned and flicked an unlocking spell at the drawer.

"Bloody hell, are you mad?! He'll be back here any second," Lee whispered.

"Go listen for him, then," Nick brushed off Lee's warning and went to look through the collection. Mostly there was a lot of nonsense Zonko's products. There was also a very beautiful obsidian stone with a collection of unfamiliar runes etched into it, what looked to be a deep blue and black coral bracelet, and a very small journal. Nick grabbed a couple of Zonko products and gave them to Lee and put the stone, bracelet and journal in his own robe pocket. Then he locked the cabinet and moved back to his spot in the office.

"You're nuts," Lee grumbled.

"He's not back" Nick pointed out. Which was true. In fact, after twenty minutes, Nick was talking Lee into sitting on the floor and working on their homework. By the time curfew came around, Filch still hadn't returned. So the pair packed up their things and headed to their respective common rooms.

"How was detention?" Eddie asked when Nick arrived back in their dorm room.

Nick shrugged. "He left with the twins and never came back. Lee and I just did homework the whole time."

"Could have been worse. At least you didn't have to go into the Forbidden Forest. Bloody terrible place." Marcus shuddered. The other boys nodded in agreement.

Nick said his goodnights and left the three to lament over past detentions. He looked over the rock, but it wasn't any clearer what it meant. The bracelet he recognised as a typical gift from a mermaid to a Wizard or Witch. It let the wearer breath underwater. Nick put it on his bedside table and took out the journal. There was no date, but it was labeled as "Prong's" and it detailed someone's efforts to become an animagus. Based on what Nick read, the author was successful.

Nick thumbed through the book a few times. Being an animagus would be really useful, but failure could be really gruesome as Professor McGonagall was happy to remind her students. Nick thumbed through it one more time before putting it under his pillow. Perhaps after dealing with the voice in the wall, he'd think of becoming an animagus.

The first Quidditch game of the year for Ravenclaw was spectacular. Poor Hufflepuff didn't stand a chance. Nick flew litural circles around the hufflepuff chasers. Grant and Nick scored 90 points before the Ravenclaw seeker got around to catch the snitch and end the game at 240-30.

"I certainly hope the game against Slytherin is that easy" Grant laughed.

"Keep wishing, it'll only get harder from here" the Captain said. He didn't sound terribly worried though.

"Let's go party in the common room, I heard someone convinced the house elves to full stock the event if we won." One of the beaters, started herding the group out of the change rooms.

As the group made their way up towards the common room a voice rang through the hall.

"_Kill…. Killl. Kill…." _

Nick nearly tripped over his own feet.

"Nick?" Grant asked. Nick brushed him off and headed down the hall after the voice. The rest of the team pulled Grant along towards the Ravenclaw common room.

"_Why are you trying to kill someone?" _Nick asked the walls once he was alone.

"_Must protect."_

"_From who?" _Nick urged but the voice didn't answer, and the sound of slithering faded down into the floor.

Nick glared at the stone floor, trying to think of a way to find the voice again. The thought of the portrait in the parslescript library came to mind. So Nick headed off towards the dungeons. He passed the Carrow sisters on his way down and said a brief "hello," but excused himself as soon as he thought polite.

He climbed through the little doorway into the library, and found the portrait seated in his painted chair, reading.

"_How would I get around in the walls?" Nick asked. _The portrait looked at him and motioned for Nick to explain himself more clearly_, "I keep hearing a voice speaking parseltongue in the walls. It's talking about killing and protecting. I think it has something to do with the petrifications lately."_

"_Andrus?" _The portrait looked up in shock, and the book fell to the bottom of the frame, "_Is it possible he's still alive?" _

"_Andrus?" _Nick asked.

"_My familiar. He was - or rather, is - a basilisk. I left him here to protect the school when I parted from this place." _

Nick stared speechlessly at the portrait. "_Who leaves a giant, deadly snake as a means of protection?!"_

"_Only a parseltongue can wake him, so he would not attack just anyone. You more than anyone should understand the knowledge and power a serpent can hold. Times were volatile when I left, the school was constantly under threat of attack by the muggles, and every protection had to be taken." _

"_Well, there is no threat now and Andrus is attacking students." _Nick pointed out in thinly veiled exasperation.

"_Then go tell the creature to cease and desist, for I cannot do it myself. There is a path straight to Andrus's room behind his fireplace. Just put out the fire and touch your wand to the middle brick." _

Nick did as instructed, beelining straight for the fireplace with his wand at the ready, and watched in amazement as the floor of the fireplace sank away into a narrow spiral staircase that led further into the dungeons.

Nick followed the winding stairs carefully, down to a large chamber. He was stading on the last step staring out at the circular room filled with tiny bones, and the decades-long remains of a straw nest before Nick stopped to question what he was doing. Nick stared at wonder at the center of the room where, coiled upon itself with its head staring at the wall opposite Nick, was the largest snake Nick had ever seen.

It was probably twice the size of the Desert Worm he'd tried talking to ages ago. Alex had gotten the brilliant idea that the Desert Worm was really a cousin to the basilisk, and had dragged Nick out to test it. Turns out, as the name indicates, a Desert Worm is, quite simply, a very large Worm.

"_Andrus?" _Nick called out gently, not wanted to scare the enormous snake and have it turn its deadly eyes towards him.

"_Speaker? How did you get in here?" _The snake sounded ancient. Beneath the deep rumble of the snake's hiss, Nick picked up on a resounding chord of surprise.

"_I'm a speaker, but we haven't had the chance to meet yet. I have tried to call out to you before, to ask who you are trying to protect us from." _

The basilisk, Andrus, let out a long hiss. He was deliberating. "_I was told the muggles are invading yet again. I went to stop it, but each time I found that the muggles were not muggles at all."_

"_There are no muggles at the school" _Nick confirmed. "_Wizards and muggles haven't been at war for a very, very long time. Whoever told you otherwise is lying. The cat you petrified is the familiar of the caretaker, and the boy is a first year from the house of Gryffindor." _

"_A student?" _Andrus lifted his head, but did not turn it to face Nick. "_Hmm… I can feel that you are indeed telling the truth. I do not get that feeling with the other speaker. Although, you are both of the Noble House of Slytherin. Tell me, why does he want me to attack students?"_

Nick thought for a moment: If the snake was really Salazar Slytherin's familiar, he may also hate muggleborns. That being said, the portrait had said that he snake was his... so then, the portrait must have been of Salazar Slytherin. So far, the portrait hadn't said anything against muggles _nor_ muggleborns.

"_Do you not know?" _Andrus asked.

"_The one who asked you to attack the others, they do not like the muggleborns. They want you rid the school of all of them."_

"_You do not agree, it would seem."_

"_No." _Nick answered firmly. "_Muggleborns are a great asset, not a threat." _

"_Very well, then I will not attack the muggleborns." _

'That was easier than expected' Nick thought to himself. He turned to go, but he caught sight of just how poorly kept Andrus's nest was. "_Would you like me to freshen this place up?" _

"_Please," _the old snake answered excitedly.

Nick didn't bother to pull out his wand, he was much more proficient at Parselmagic anyways. He cleaned the walls, and did away with the bones and the fossilized straw. Then he summoned new straw, and even a few wild goats for the snake.

"_Thank you, speaker." _

"_My name is Nicholas, and it has been a pleasure meeting you Andrus."_

"_Please come again." _

"_I shall" _Nick promised, before heading back up the winding staircase to the library, where he bid Salazar Slytherin a good night.

By the time Nick got back to his dorm, everyone else was already sound asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"What's the book?" Fred tried to grab the book from Nick's grasp, but Nick managed to move it out of the Weasley twin's reach just in time.

Marcus noticed that the book was now being held just in front of his face, and he plucked it easily from Nick's hands.

"Why are you two even sitting here? You never do any homework." Eddie motioned for Marcus to pass the book over, but Marcus held it to his chest, away from Eddie. "Come _on _Marcus, hand it over. We all know you're a closet hufflepuff. You can safely admit that you've no idea what the book's about."

"Oi!" Marcus exclaimed indignantly. Hugo took the opportunity to appropriate the book in question.

"Who's Prongs?" Hugo asked, his eyes skimming the inside cover. The Twins whipped their heads around so quickly that the third year Ravenclaws collectively winced at the potential whiplash.

Nick grabbed his book back out of Hugo's hands. "I do not know."

"But you have his book" Eddie pointed out.

Nick smiled in feigned innocence.

"Come on, you can tell us!" whined Marcus.

"_No_ talking" the librarian demanded.

Marcus tried to pass a note to Nick asking for an explanation, but Nick ignored him.

He was hoping to let the whole thing pass, but when he tried to leave for the Ravenclaw common room, the twins dragged him up towards the Gryffindor Common Room with them.

"I don't have any of my potions things," Nick tried to point out. He knew that the twins were looking for a whole different brand of mischief though.

"You got a book by _Prongs_-_!_" one twin said in utter bewilderment.

The other twirled Nick around to face him, "and _we _got a bit of parchment by Messrs: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, _and-_"

"-Prongs!" The other concluded, stopping Nick mid-spin.

"Very... fishy," Fred concluded.

"Definitely dodgy," agreed George. "So, what d'you wanna bet they're connected?"

"You two are plotting," Nick accused. The twins only grinned.

Nick tried to take a step back, but the twins had him surrounded. In a manner of speaking.

"We know what the bit of parchment can do, but what does that _journal _do?" George asked. "Come on now Itty bitty Nicky, you can tell old George and me."

"But… You _are _George," Nick pointed out. The eyes of the twins widened for a split second before narrowing in suspicion. It was rare that anyone ever caught onto their age-old identity swap."What?" Nick asked them plainly, "I'm just good at these things. Not all of us are always plotting."

"So then, can we see the book?" The twins asked together. They gave Nick their best, dramatic puppy dog eyes.

Nick pulled the book in question out of his bag and begrudgingly handed it to the twins. Fred held the journal and flipped through the pages as George read over his shoulder. The two looked as if their birthday had come early.

"Brother _dear, _I do believe we have found a new challenge," George grinned at his brother like a Cheshire cat.

Nick adamantly shook his head, "Nope. Neniu, non, nein, nincs, nie, NO"

Fred reach over and ruffled Nick's hair, "Don't hurt yourself there snakelet."

"Not me, you. Animagus magic is very hard."

"No! You don't say?" George answered sarcastically. He turned to Fred in mock surprise, "You hear that, Freddie?"

"Too bad Professor Mcgonagall never warned us,"

"Once-"

"Twice-"

"Every other lesson..."

Nick managed to get his book back from the twins while they bantered. The two looked very put out once they realized the journal was no longer in their possession. They looked at each other and both seem to consider something. They turned around, backs to Nick, and huddled together to discuss whatever it was.

Nick was fairly certain they weren't actually discussing anything at all, since he heard things like "And we can grab the old monkey-", "Build a snowman army"- and "-eat the canary, as ma always says."

The twins turned around abruptly. "We've decided to make a deal," George announced. "You share the book, and we'll share the map."

"Map?"

The twins grinned. Fred pulled out a piece of parchment. George put his wand on the parchment, and uttered the words, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." With those words, images etched in moving ink began to bleed across the parchment, slowly revealing a map of Hogwarts.

"_Oh_" Nick said. He reached out for the parchment, his thoughts brimming with questions and new ideas. But Fred pulled the map just out of reach. Nick sighed, and passed the journal over to George. Fred handed Nick the map with a grin.

"How about we switch for now? And we can switch back when you want to read this, or when _we _need to pull a prank."

Nick nodded absently to the terms and distractedly extended a hand for the twins to shake.

Three hours later, Nick was comfortably seated atop the coils of Andrus, his head resting on the Basilisk's head so that when Andrus hissed, Nick felt the exhaled air hit his arms. The vibrations lulled Nick into a lethargic state.

"_Why are the pipes not on the map?" _Andrus asked.

"_The Marauders must not have known about them. The Chamber isn't here either. I wonder what else they missed." _Nick explored the map, searching_. _He watched in fascination as Professor Snape stood perfectly still in his office while the rest of the castle seemed to constantly shuffle. '_Must be brewing' _Nick thought.

"_You could add the forest, too" _Andrus suggested. Nick stiffened. "_Does the forest scare you, little snake? I would go with you, if you like."_

_Nick scoffed. "We'd get caught." He pointed out pragmatically. _

"_Not at night" Andrus pointed out._

"_It would be difficult anyway. And curfew…"_

"_It is already well past curfew." _Andrus pointed out patiently. Nick watched Filch prowl the halls. The creepy old caretaker stalked around scaring children and chasing after Peeves the poltergeist.

"_I can't start tonight. I need to study how they managed this first, copy what's already here, and then we can start adding things. I want to do the Chamber and its many entrances and exits first thing, though."_

"_As you wish, speaker. Now, I need to hunt for dinner, you may come if you like-"_

"_-Well, it certainly was nice to see you again Andrus! I'll be taking me leave now." _Nick clambered off the snake in rather a hurry and quickly made his getaway back up to the Parseltongue library.

Nick took the first few steps two at a time, the sound of his feet knocking of the stone back down to Andrus. He was nearly out of breath by the time he made it back up out of the fireplace.

"_How is Andrus?" _asked Salazar Slytherin_. _

Nick noted the "_Parseltongue Patronus_" book still sitting on the dusty old chair. "_He's fine. He just went out to the forest to hunt for dinner." _Nick pulled his wand out and pointed it at the ground. "Expecto Patronum" he uttered. A very faint tinge of blue seeped out of his wand.

"_You are improving," _Salazar noted, "_May I be so bold as to inquire about the memory?"_

"_Ravenclaws beat Hufflepuffs in quidditch. I'm on the team." _Nick tried the spell again, but it wasn't any stronger than before. As much as he was thrilled to completely demolish the Hufflepuffs in quidditch, he had been forced onto the team to begin with. One only gets so much joy from being forced into something.

"_There are no new memories you have made with your dorm mates?" _Salazar asked, his tone was neither curious no smoking. It was practically scientific in its tone.

Nick quickly reviewed his year thus far, the thought of Luna's letter came to mind with a smile. Nick held his wand slightly aloof in front of him and cast the spell again. This time sputtering blue light began to form a sphere. Like a tea cup plate. Not particularly effective, but certainly better than the wispy sputtering nonsense he produce before.

"_Maybe when I finish this project, I'll have my real memory." _Slytherin looked curiously at the blank parchment in Nick's hands when Nick asked, "_You wouldn't happen to know if there are any original blueprints of Hogwarts?"_

Salazar's eyes rolled over Nick. The portrait seemed to be judging and calculating, "_There are… But why is it you want them?"_

"_To make a map."_

"_I gathered as much. However, why, beyond the obvious, do you want a map of Hogwarts?" _

"_There are many reasons one could use a map of Hogwarts."_

"_Many indeed... " _Salazar tapped his fingers on the edge of the frame, creating the clicking sound of long nails on wood. "_Very well, Helga's Room of Requirement on the seventh floor would probably have the maps. They were originally in the Planning Room, but Godric turned that room into the Kitchens one night when he was superbly drunk. I've no notion if Helga ever found the maps again, but I am sure that over time they have found their way into Helga's rooms again." _Salazar looked rather happy to be talking about the other founders.

Nick thought about asking what had happened the night Salazar left, but then he figured it would be rude to do so. Nick simply thanked the founder and took his leave. He cast "_invisibility" _on himself like he always did, and headed back to his dorm for the night. In his mind he was already concocting plans for his very own map.

(break here)

The next morning, Marcus had to practically drag Nick down to breakfast, where he shoved him into his usual seat beside Luna. Nick definitely did _not _function well on three hours of sleep. The Ravenclaw table was abuzz with chatter; a Dueling club had been announced. The first session was with Lockhart that very afternoon.

Nick listened with vague interest to the critical and thoughtful discussions on the practicality of a dueling club, up until Cho Chang pointed up to the flock of incoming owls. "Did you see that? There's a _blue Phoenix_ with a letter!"

Nick motioned for Luna to move over and make room for another person to sit.

The Ice Phoenix circled around Nick twice, before settling on the set of plates beside the boy. A swirl of snow surrounded the Phoenix. Large ice crystals the size of pennies settled all around the bench and table. They stayed for a brief moment to glisten in the fire flight before melting away into annoying little puddles of water. When the enchanted mini blizzard settled, there was a light blue-skinned boy in the bird's place. The boy was dressed in pale blue robes, with moving pictures of falling snowflakes running down the material, a set of dark blue cuffs finishing off the look of elegant snow prince the boy gave off.

"Nice flight?" Nick asked casually.

He tactfully ignored the gaping stares his roommates gave the boy. He knew at least a few of them had spent enough time in the upper echelons of society to know it was rude to gape.

The boy in blue shrugged. "Weather coming over the Mediterranean was a bit stormy, but other than that it was fine." A plate appeared in front of the boy, and he began filling it with food, everything from eggs and toast to tarts and pie. "There was this one muggle plane… that was really my fault, though. I wasn't really paying attention you see. Anyways, Mao Jian sends his regards and told me to give this to you." With those words, the boy held out a folded bit of parchment. "When'd you start learning English anyways?" he asked curiously.

Then the strange, blue boy took a long look around the Great Hall, "And since when did you start attending school? You really _should _write more. I feel like I've just missed a great adventure every time I see you."

"Nice to see you too, Faer." Nick took the letter from his friend and opened it. There were two letters inside. One was addressed to Nick in Parselscript, asking about his latest adventures, and the second was addressed to 'prospective buyers' and written in English.

"Cho, letter of t miniature dragons," Nick passed the letter to Cho.

"Thanks… and, um, after I read this, could you maybe explain your friend here?" Cho asked, motioning to Faer.

Nick looked around the great hall to notice that a good portion of the student body, along with most of the professors, were looking at himself and Faer with great interest.

"Oh, how rude of me! I'm Faer. I met Nick when we was just a wee babe. His father and I were good friends. I was visiting a mutual friend of ours and was asked to bring Nick his letter on my way over to Norway."

Nick looked up in interest, "Is that where Alex is?"

Faer looked shocked, "You mean you haven't heard from him? Oh that's right, I was supposed to deliver that before going to China... Here," Faer produced another letter, "Heh… My apologies. I forgot that was even in there."

"Are you a…" Eddie trailed off, not finishing his question.

"Ice Phoenix, yes. Mao Jian, a mutual friend of ours, he taught me how to create this form when I was younger."

"How old are you?" Hugo asked.

Nick looked up, a spark of interest in his eyes.

Faer laughed, "Old, very old."

A burst of flames at the front of the Great Hall caught the attention of most of the student body.

"Fawks!" Faer exclaimed happily. The boy vanished in a whirlwind of flying snow. The Ice phoenix took off into the air. He circled the fire phoenix, and the pair took off outside, into the airy outdoors.

"What was _that _all about?" Marcus asked Nick.

Nick looked back up from the letter from Mao Jian, "Faer? I have no idea."

"I like him" Luna declared.

Nick snorted. "You would," Nick muttered under his breath. "Charms class?" Nick asked the other third years Ravenclaws, as he started to pack up his things for class.

"Er...yeah, I guess" Marcus said. Slowly the group packed up their things and headed towards their class. "Nick, I am starting to get the feeling there is a whole strange story behind you."

"I'm not that interesting,"

"Sure you aren't" Eddie patted Nick's shoulder, "And I'm actually a hippogriff disguised as a Ravenclaw."

"After the show that that blue Phoenix put on…" Hugo sent Eddie a calculating look.

"Well, Nick… What is your story?"

Nick immediately went into what sounded like rehearsed spiel, terse and very bored. "My parents died when I was very young. I grew up traveling with my Uncle. I nearly got myself killed one too many times and then got sent here. Not much of a story."

"You say that, but an ice Phoenix, which I've never even read about before, showed up at breakfast today with a letter from a mutual friend from _China _who breeds miniature _dragons_."

Marcus paused in the hall and walked around Nick, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Side note, that's the most I think I've ever heard you speak before."

"I stumble across adventures lots," Nick explained.

"You don't say" Marcus commented dryly.

The bizarre Ice Phoenix was largely forgotten by the time lunch was finished as students clamoured to get to the Dueling Club.

(Page Break)

Nick saw Luna heading to the common room after lunch and latched onto the girl, dragging her excitedly towards the classroom.

"I have never stunned a student in class before," Luna mentioned airily.

Nick waved the girl's concerns away. That was what the club was for: practice. A dueling club was just the sort of thing Nick needed. The informal duel Nick and Marcus had had in DADA after they rounded up the Pixies had been exhilarating. Dueling was the most practical knowledge Nick could possibly get from Hogwarts, in Nick's opinion.

"Gather Round, gather round. Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?" Professor Lockhart structed up and down the dueling platform. He gave a final dramatic turn when he reached the end. "Excellent."

"Peacock," someone whispered behind Nick. He turned to see the Carrow sisters sneering up at the DADA professor.

Flora Carrow noted Nick's gaze, "I've no idea why Dumbledore let him teach and not professor Flitwick. I'd much rather learn from a dueling champion, even if he is the Ravenclaw head of house."

"He just called Professor Snape his assistant. Did you hear that?" Hestia asked indignantly. Many of the other slytherins looked as if they were silently cursing Lockhart. The man stayed blissfully unaware as always. Nick was convinced Professor Lockhart would only notice how other people viewed him if it were written on his mirror.

The group watched attentively as the two Professors walked several paces from each other. They turned, Snape a whirlwind of inky black robes, Lockhart a cloud of glitter. Snape fired a very well timed Expelliarmus, sending Lockhart backwards onto his fancy ass.

Chatter rose up steadily. Nick could hear several Slytherins praising their head of house. Even the Gryffindors on the opposite side of the dueling platform seemed to be laughing.

Nick looked down and saw Luna trying to ever so stealthily escape the dueling room. Nick pulled her back in, "I don't think so, favorite firstie, I still need someone to practice with. I'll let you stun me if you stay."

"You'll have to show me how to properly cast the spell, first."

"Alright, pair up and work on what you just saw" Lockhart instructed, standing firmly on two feet once again.

Nick pulled Luna off to the back of the classroom. "Let's start with Stupefy. Have you done this spell before?" Luna shook her head. "Alright. Marcus went over this one with me last week. Simply say the word 'Stupefy' very firmly, and draw your wand down in a straight line towards your opponent. I'm going to try and block the spell with a Protego charm." Nick took a few steps back and readied himself.

"...Stupefy" Luna tried, and a very faint light appeared from the wand's tip, The spell fluttered out of existence not a foot from her wand.. She tried again, a bit more firmly, and a light shot out of her wand.

"Protego," Nick commanded with a flick of his wand, and a magically conjured sort of shield appeared in front of him. It was thinner and weaker than any Parseltongue shield Nick could produce, but it did stop Luna's spell.

The pair grinned happily at one another and tried again.

After just a few more tries, Professor Lockhart called the group back to the stage. Nick's attention shifted to the platform and Luna's stupefy caught him effectively off guard, throwing him to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Luna asked sheepishly. "I've never hit someone before. That was louder than I expected, when you hit the ground."

"I'm fine," Nick answered. He pulled Luna back over to the stage to stand beside the Carrow sisters.

"I'll bet on Draco" Hestia Carrow poked Nick and Luna before pointing to the dueling platform. Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter stood at either end, facing each other with intense, focused glares.

"I'll bet on Potter," Nick countered.

Flora looked at Nick strangely, "Why? Draco's a pureblood, surely Mr. Malfoy would have taught his boy how to duel. What would the Muggles have taught Potter?"

"Well one, Muggles can be very dangerous in a duel. Two, I just wanted to bet against _you_," Nick explained.

"I really don't think that's how betting works," Luna pointed out.

The Carrow sisters nodded, "I never thought I'd agree with you, Loony Lovegood, but you're quite right. Nicholas, you are a terrible gambler."

"We shall see…" Nick turned back to the stage just in time to see Potter go flying across the platform.

Flora giggled, "See, I _told _you Draco would know what he's doing."

Potter jumped back to his feet and sent a spell Draco's way. The boy had time to dodge or defend against the spell, but he just watched as it hit him.

Draco got back up to his feet, and with a counterspell summoned a snake from his own wand.

"House pride?" Nick asked Flora.

"Probably just showing off a spell he just learned. The snake won't stop Potter from retaliating."

Lockhart stepped forward to vanish the snake, but all he ended up doing was sending it flying into the air. The snake hit the ground with a _smack _and let out a very angry hiss.

"_Good for nothing Wizards," _ The snake hissed furiously. It began to slither towards the Gryffindors. Nick flinched as the snake got near enough to attack, but then Potter stepped forward, and what he did next shocked everyone.

"_Leave him alone" _ Harry Potter demanded.

Nick looked at the boy in stunned wonder. Harry Potter, Saviour of the Wizarding World, the Golden boy... was a Parselmouth? Nick stared at the scrawny second-year Gryffindor in surprise. There was a house _specifically _designed around snakes. How did any self-respecting Parseltongues ever ended up in _Gryffindor_?

Nick conveniently ignored that he, himself had been intentionally sorted into Ravenclaw.

"_Leave him alone"_ Potter demanded again. This time the snake turned to the boy, but before the snake could say anything in return, Professor Snape shot a Burning Hex at the serpent and the Snake crackled away to nothing, burnt into a tiny pile of ash.

Nick took a reflexive step back.

The students surrounding the platform, from all houses, regarded Harry Potter with immediate distrust. Nick moved to intercept the Potter boy as his friends shuffled him quickly out of the room, but when he caught sight of the scorn the boy was getting for being a parselmouth, he opted for remaining where he stood beside Luna.

"You and Harry Potter should listen to the walls together," said Luna, a repeat of what she had told Nick earlier.

Nick turned to the first year. Her air of innocence and naivete hovered around her, hiding her brilliance. "Remind me to talk to you about that later. For now, shall we practice?"

Together, he and Luna went to the back of the room and went back to to stunning and shielding. The rest of the students did as well, but with a much more sedated excitement than before, thanks to the strange Potter incident

"Wanna trade partners for a bit?" asked an exhausted Hugo. Nick looked over to see a painting, but grinning Marcus. Nick caught a glint of something unnerving in the boy's eyes. "I might never wake up if he stuns me again."

Nick took pity on his roommate and motioned for Hugo to pair of with Luna, "Be nice to the firsties."

"Thank you, I'll be a real gentleman. Really, thank you."

Nick started to walked over to Marcus, but had to dive out of the way of a stunner. He threw up a Protego just in time for the second stunner to bounce away from him harmlessly. "Stupefy!" Nick shouted back at whoever had done that. Any formal dueling practices went straight out the window as the two Ravenclaws moved around the room, diving, sprinting and rolling their way across the floor. "Protego! Stupefy, Stupefy! Expelliarmus, Protego!" Nick leapt up to the dueling stage and dove over to the other side, ducking as he chanted, "Petrificus Totalus!"

"Mr. Broda, Mr. Belby! Enough!" Professor Snape stepped between the boys and blocked the oncoming spells with an easy flick of the wand. Nick and Marcus paled considerably. "Larrikins, the both of you. Move to the back of the classroom and practice _properly_."

The two quickly moved back over to Luna and Hugo. The Carrow sisters were there, too, offering pointers to the dueling pair.

"Hanging around Slimy Slytherins now, are you?" The Weasley twins had wandered over to the group.

"Fred, George Weasley, meet Flora and Hestia Carrow, Luna Lovegood, Marcus Belby and Hugo Mattingley. I've no notion where Eddie is-"

"Library" Hugo supplied.

"But Marcus, Hugo and Eddie are my roommates."

"It's pleasure to meet you bookworms… and slimy snakes. Mind if we borrow Nick-?" Fred grabbed Nick's right arm, and George did the same with his left.

"Just for a moment? Great, carry on then." The twins frogmarched Nick out of the dueling room and down the halls to an empty classroom two doors down.

This classroom wasn't like the potion class room at all. It had clearly been used in the last century. Probably for meditation classes or some such thing as the room was lined with piles of dusty old sitting pillows. the chalkboard at the front was only partially erased, as if whoever was at work clearing up was interrupted. The board still read ",,, breath in through ... Inhale. Let ... mouth, Exhale."

There was a fine layer of dust on practically everything, but the round circle the twins had made using _Scourgify _to clean up the dust. The smell of mildew was still potent enough to make Nick want to gage, though.

"We read the book, and we're going to start finding our animal! Thought you might want to join in the adventure." Fred explained.

George gave Nick a hard shove down on the shoulder and forced Nick to sit. "We start with breathing."

Nick wasn't really sure why the twins had really wanted him there, but he _had _intended on becoming an animagus after reading the journal, anyway. Now was as good a time to start as any.

The three boys sat and tried to meditate until curfew, but all they got out of that was a few sore bottoms. "Maybe we missed something George-"

"We should read more into it Fred-" The twins both looked at Nick.

There it was, the reason he was 'invited' to join the twins in their quest. _He _got to do all the research. "Ugh, yes, alright! This weekend, after I've brewed my potions on Saturday, we can go over what I'll have found by then and try again."

Nick hissed unpleasant things to himself about the twins his entire walk back to the Ravenclaw dormitory.

"The beginning of eternity, The end of time and space, The beginning of every end, And the end of every place" sing-songed the enchanted knocker.

"The letter 'e'" Nick answered the Ravenclaw door knocker's riddle snappily and entered the common room.

"Where have you _been_?" Eddie demanded, worry in his eyes as he announced gravely, "Nearly Headless Nick and Justin Finch-Fletchley have both been petrified. Professor Flitwick has the Prefects taking attendance and checking beds. You'd better go tell Penelope Clearwater you're here before she starts organizing a search party."


	6. Chapter 6

"Nick? Herbology is this way" Eddie grabbed Nick's arm and pulled him down the corridor towards the greenhouse.

Nick suppressed all thoughts of stunning Eddie in Parseltongue and making a break for it. It was more difficult that it really should have been, since Eddie insisted on trying to cut off the circulation in Nick's arm as he chattered about senseless dribble while they walked.

"Seriously, you've been trying to ditch people all day. What's your problem? Did you not hear about the petrification cases? It sounds like Potter sent some monster to try and kill them, he might get you, too." Eddie sounded exasperated.

"I still need to study."

"Nonsense, you're a closet Slytherin, you don't need to study as much as the real Ravenclaws." Marcus pointed out

"Plus, we're going to the library after dinner to study, same as every Wednesday," Eddie pointed out. Nick shook his head.

"Oh, that's right, you go off with the twins to cause chaos instead."

"Oh look, it's the second years," Marcus interrupted, pointing to the group of students coming out of the herbology classroom. Among them was Potter, the Weasley boy who was always hanging around him, and Bushy.

Nick hung back as the other Ravenclaw students gave the younger Gryffindors a wide berth on their way to the greenhouse. Harry Potter walked with his head down, making quick strides on his way up to the castle. As he passed, Nick whispered softly, "We need to talk."

The boy's head whipped up, eyes wide he meet Nick's gaze for a fraction of a second. . He looked like he might stop to talk right then, but his friends continued to herd him up to the castle.

When he got to the herbology classroom, Nick found a seat by Cho and sat down, pulling out his equipment for the day.

"You shouldn't get too near him, he's dangerous you know" Cho pointed out, matter-of-factly. She must have noticed how close Nick had been walking to Potter on the way to class.

Nick only shrugged.

Nick sat at his Herbology desk, idly drumming his fingers. It didn't make _sense _that the attacks were still happening, considering that Andrus the basilisk said he wouldn't be attacking anymore.

Something must have changed. Perhaps, whoever organized the attacks had found a way to force the ballistic into action.

"Nick? Hey, Nick" Cho called Nick's attention to Professor Sprout, who stood at the front of the greenhouse. She was pointing out the qualities of a freshly re-potted mandrake, and a portion that could and in fact would be made out of manicured mandrakes to cure petrification. Nick pulled out a quill and started taking notes.

(Page Break)

After class was finished he was dragged back to the Ravenclaw common room for an hour of studying before dinner.

He found a seat beside Luna and Eddie and pulled out his Charms work.

"Eddie," Nick looked up from his work, "Are the victims still petrified?"

Eddie didn't bother to look up from his work while he answered, "Yeah. Professor Sprout needs to finish making the cure. It should be done before the end of the school year, though."

"Those who have been petrified will have to take remedial summer classes to catch up for lost time," Marcus noted, pitying the few who would have to be subjected to such an awful thing.

Nick nodded and pulled out a bit of parchment. He knew there were parseltongue spells that could undo the petrifying effects of a basilisk stare, but they weren't exactly common knowledge. Still, if anyone did know, it was Mao Jian, Nick's trusty contact in China.

"Is that a letter you need to post?" Luna pointed to the folded parchment in front of Nick, "I've a letter I need to send, too. We can go together." She didn't wait for a reply, but just started packing her things before walking out of the room.

Nick had to hustle to pack his things and catch up.

"Why'd she ask if she wasn't even going to wait for a response?" Eddie questioned as Nick shoved the last of his things into his bag. Nick shrugged. There was no sense in trying to understand Luna and her endless quirks.

Nick let Luna lead the way up to the owlery. Twice he could have sworn they were going in the wrong direction, but they made it there faster than Nick normally did, so he figured Luna knew some short cut that Nick had never seen on the Marauder's map.

"Your friends are here" Luna pointed out. Nick looked up to find Fawkes and Faer both perched in the rafters above.

The two phoenixes waved a wing at the students, before going back to their birdish chatting.

"I wonder what phoenixes talk about" Luna said dreamily.

Nick shrugged. "Faer talks about the weather mostly, that is, when we talk. He always seems to know where the next major storm is going to hit. He says that storms have been getting more severe and more frequent lately. He worries, I think."

Luna gave a solemn nod. "There are a lot less Nature Guards in the forest. I went looking for one the other day, and I couldn't find a single one."

"Nature Guards?" Nick asked.

Luna smiled and twisted the turnip in her hair thoughtfully. "They don't do much really, just wander the forest. They die off if the forest is ailing, though. Rather a shame, I think."

"Ahh," Nick smiled, "_forest spirits_ yes, I've seen those before. I saw a whole forest worth of _forest spirits_ burrowing into the ground right before a forest fire. In the months after, not a single one came back up."

Luna nodded, "It is worrisome."

"Very" Nick agreed.

"Perhaps we should go to the dungeons, speaking of worrisome and all," Luna suggested. Nick looked a little a taken aback, listening more intently when she continued with the question,. "Have you been listening to the walls lately?"

The wall thing again. "Right... yes, we should go to the dungeons then," Nick muttered.

Again, he let Luna lead the way down to the dungeons. Nick recognized every passage Luna led him through, but she still made it to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin before Nick would have, and at a far more leisurely pace than Nick walked.

The portrait gave the two students a wary look, frowning when he saw Luna.

"_Why is she here?_"

_"Good to see you too, professor"_ Nick hissed. He motioned for Luna to make herself at home. "I'm afraid all the books are in parselscript. I'll be back soon, though."

"That's alright Nicholas, it will be interesting to look around. Perhaps I can talk to Professor Slytherin. Does he only speak parseltongue?"

Nick shrugged. He honestly had no idea, but he was sure Luna would find out. With a hiss and a flick of his wrist, the fire in the fireplace was put, out and the set of stairs leading down to the chamber appeared before him. Nick hesitated to descend… he felt that there was now a chance that the basilisk might attack him.

'Gryffindor courage' Nick reminded himself; it was a quality worth emulating, even if it did often lead to uncomfortable situations.

Andrus was curled up in his regular coil, not sleeping so much as resting his eyes.

_"Andrus , I heard you were attacking students again."_ Nick announced. It probably would have been more polite to start the conversation with pleasantries, but at this point Nick couldn't be bothered.

Andrus finally decided to raise his head, but his eyes were glued on the wall opposite Nick. _"I'm afraid the one who commands me is the true heir of slytherin. I am bound to obey."_

_"Wait, are you saying old moldy-voldy is in the school?" _

Andrus shook his head, _"I do not know of any 'moldy voldys, but I do know my master's name: it is Tom Marvolo Riddle. I am bound to obey him." _

_"Do you know of any way to break the bond?"_ Nick asked hopefully.

Andrus slumped back into his coil, _"I fear I do not."_

Nick stood for a moment and thought. He couldn't think of any immediate solutions, but Mao Jian, Faer or Alex might know a way if Professor Slytherin did not. _"I'll figure something out over the Christmas holidays, and if I find anything, I'll get back to you. I'm sure there is a way."_

_"If there is not..."_ Andrus began.

Nick cutting him off, knowing perfectly well where the serpent was going with the train of thought. "We will find a way to break the bond. There is no need for needless gryffindor martyrdom.

Andrus said nothing. The rise and the fall of his coils made Nick think that, perhaps, the old snake had fallen asleep again. Maybe it was better to end the conversation there. Nick would rather think only the foolish, stupid Gryffindors would sacrifice themselves. It meant that Nick would never have to.

Generation after generation of Nick's line had sacrificed themselves to the hunt. His own parents had nobly died at the claws of some rare beast in an effort to secure some ancient scroll to help find answers. Nick didn't want to go like that. Sure, he wanted to help, but he also wanted to die at a ripe old age of something trivial, like Dragon Pocks, not in an epic burst of fire and bravery.

Nick thought on this on his way back up the steps.

He was surprised to see Luna holding up a book for Professor Slytherin to see, and noticed that the painting was translating the text for the first year Ravenclaw into English.

Nick relit the fire and took a seat to read about patronuses in the corner, letting Luna enjoy the knowledge gold mine that was the founder, along with the collection of parselscript books. While he chased away the thoughts of his own mortality with mindless instructions the use of the spell he hadn't learned yet.

"We should head to the Great Hall"

Nick looked up to see Luna peering down at him. "Right, dinner, yeah. Let's get going before we're late."

The two said their goodbyes to Salazar and headed down for dinner.

(Page Break)

Several weeks passed by uneventfully, with no more petrifications or crazy pranks from the twins.

In mid November, however, Faer stopped by the school to deliver a package to Cho Chang.

"Do the post Owls know that the Phoenixes intend to create a competitive market?" Nick asked thoughtfully.

Faer changed into his more human form,using the momentum of his decent and hischange to hit Nick upside the head, all in one fluid motion.

"Whatcha got there?" Marcus pointed at the small, silver and blue package.

Cho gently opened it to reveal a small blue egg, with silver streaks running around at odd angles.

"Is that... a _dragon's_ egg? Don't you need a license to own one of those?" remarked Hugo, staring at the egg in awe and admiration.

Cho shook her head, "The law is a little fuzzy when it comes to Miniature Dragons, mostly because no one breeds them in Europe. They're very hard to breed."

"Mao's definitely an exception to the rule if anyone is. He could breed any miniature dragon to create any design, but even master dragon breeders have trouble producing an egg itself, much less controlling the colour." Faer handed Nick a letter and took Nick's plate.

"Hey, that's my food." Nick grabbed his plate back.

Faer plucked the letter out of Nick's hands. "Then this is my letter."

"Fine, you bloody frozen peacock."

Faer looked completely unruffled by Nick's petty insult, and happily reclaimed the plate of food.

"So how do you hatch it?" Marcus indicated towards the egg.

Cho looked around the delivery box and pulled out a small scroll about the size of Cho's pinky finger. She unrolled it, and slowly, the parchment began to fill itself with dark blue scrawl.

"That single scroll should answer pretty much any question you have about the dragon. Just think of what you want to know, and unroll it. If you have nothing in mind or aren't concentrating on Dragon-related topics, then a simple fun fact will show up." Faer explained.

"Is this Mao's way of trying to get into the European market?" Nick asked Faer.

The Ice Phoenix shrugged. "The old man only ever really talks about, I dunno, inner peace and all that nonsense."

"Don't you meditate for like, what, nine hours a day?" Nick asked.

"Two, one when I wake up one before bed. That's different. Inner peace isn't all that there is to life. You'll miss a lot of life if you spend all your time in your head."

"So... when will it hatch?" Marcus asked.

Cho looked up from her scroll. "It sounds like it depends on the climate and how I look after it. I need to keep it cold as much as possible, but also near people and animals. Seems like dragons don't like to hatch in isolation."

"You could put it by the window at night" The girl sitting beside Cho suggested.

"One of the seventh years might be willing to carve ice runes into a box with you." Hugo suggested.

"I could look after it from time to time, too." Faer commented, "Fawks has errands he runs for Professor Dumbledore from time to time."

"Would you mind looking after it during the day, just until I can get a box for it?" Cho asked Fear.

Faer grinned, "Not at all. I'll even sing for it. Maybe cry over it to help it grow." Cho handed the egg to Faer. "I'll bring her back to you tonight at seven."

"Do you even know where I'll be by then?" asked Cho.

"I'll find you, I've got my ways." Faer winked.

"The owls teach you their secret?" Nick asked innocently.

"Hush, you," Faer hit Nick on the arm. He said one last farewell, before taking off in a swirl of blue feather.

In the wake of Faer's departure, the Weasley twins swaggered over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Time to meditate!" Fred announced.

"You meditate?" Hugo's eyebrows raised so high up that they disappeared under his bangs.

George leaned back and relaxed a shoulder. "Yeah, helps relieve the everyday stress and worry of being one of us."

"Exams, Christmas, really stressful period of time. We think that Meditating really helps soothe the soul."

"And I think you're full of shit" Hugo snorted back. "Have fun causing mayhem, try not to lose Ravenclaw any points." Hugo pointed his spoon at Nick in a warning.

Nick gave a salute and let the twins drag him off for another Animagus training session.

"I read in "The Last Great Transformation" that "An Animagus does not know what his or her animal form will be prior to the transformation." Nick stated, when the three arrived in their usual empty classroom. "That seemed strange to me, because "Back to Nature" stated that you need to meditate to find you form before doing anything else. _Potions Everlasting_ has a recipe at the back that is described as, "used to induce the Animagus transformation" but it doesn't say if it is meant for the first time or for those who have already mastered the art." Nick flopped down onto the floor with a resigned sigh.

"Never fear, Nickie dear," George sing-songed, "Fred and I read what old Prongs had to say. They used good old meditation! We know it worked for him" he pointed out.

"Worth a shot, we think," followed up Fred.

Nick looked from one twin to the other, hesitant. "If we mess up…"

The twins hushed him, "None of your 'ifs'. Let's just give it a shot, eh?"

The twins took a spot across from Nick, sitting back to back. They looked strangely serious as they closed their eyes and relaxed into their minds.

Nick sighed, but he closed his eyes as well. He wasn't really sure what he should be thinking about. So instead, he just tried to stop all his thoughts, and not let his mind wander to the Hunt, or the new map of Hogwarts, or who Tom Riddle could be.

Eventually, Nick began to see grass. He could feel dirt beneath him. He moved forward and looked around. He seemed to be in a cane field.

Nick looked back, and saw his body. He had dark indigo, almost black scales. He was a snake. Nick flicked his tail back and forth a few times before his mind geared up. More specifically, he was an Eastern indigo snake. He'd had one as a pet when he lived in Florida for a few weeks. How ironic that he would become like his old pet.

All too soon, Nick found himself slipping from his inner mind back into reality.

The twins were still meditating, so Nick made himself busy, working on Transfiguration homework. When the twins finally came around, it was nearly curfew.

"Well?" Nick asked.

"Coyote!" They both cheered. "They're like, the animal embodiment of mischief. Perfect!" They clapped each other on the back, pleased with themselves.

Then they both looked to Nick, who smiled, declaring proudly, "Eastern indigo snake."

George grinned, "So, the rumours _are _true, you're a Slytherin masquerading as a Ravenclaw."

Nick smiled smugly, "Who trusts the word of a Slytherin? Now a Ravenclaw, _they _are respected more than Hufflepuff, and are listened to by both slytherins and Gryffindors. Everyone trusts a bookworm Ravenclaw, right?"

The twins laughed with Nick and dragged the younger boy along with them towards the staircase, finished for the day.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Nick sat on the steps of the Entrance Hall, bundled up in his winter robe. Streams of eager students headed off to the waiting carriages for their trip home.

The weekend had been fairly quiet, and the twins seemed to be twitching in their seats, waiting for a chance to start working on their animagus forms. But with so few students staying for christmas and all the professors present there was too great a chance of getting caught so it was put off.

Cho Chang, Nick, two seventh year Ravenclaws, and Ravenclaw Chaser Grant Page were the only ones to stay from Nick's house. The two seventh years had access to Professor Flitwick's personal library and had disappeared to go read before breakfast. He still hadn't shown up after lunch when everyone else headed down to the entrance hall.

Grant had been hanging around some fifth year Gryffindor girl since his break up with the slytherin he had been dating before. Nick wasn't about to point out that Grant was just brooding over being used by some pretty slytherin, but it was clear enough without mentioning that sore fact. Not that this Gryffindor girl seemed to care.

Cho seemed a bit lost without the other girls from Ravenclaw to keep her company, but a handful of Hufflepuff girls had noticed this, and quickly adopted Cho into their ranks. It ended up being a welcome comradery for them all. A few of the Hufflepuff guys had attempted to extend the same offer to Nick, but the Weasley twins hauled him off before the boy got a chance to respond. They led him down to the grounds to watch the procession of migrating students.

"Why are we here?" Nick asked George.

George grinned madly, "Just saying good bye." He didn't seem particularly focused on a single group of people though, mostly his eyes followed the occasional seventh year that wondered by.

Nick glared, scoffed at the two grinning mischief-makers, turned on his heel, and walked off. He was not going to get caught up in yet another prank. Detention over Christmas was practically unthinkable.

The first place to escape to that came to mind was the parseltongue library. Months of translating nearly every sentence had worn down Nick's nerves, and now all he wanted to do was curl up with a good book that he could actually understand, and spend the afternoon reading by the window as the snow fell outside.

On his way down to the dungeons, Nick came across Harry Potter and the youngest Weasley boy, both saying goodbye to the girl whom Nick had dubbed "Bushy" in his mind.

Nick stood off to one side until Bushy turned to leave. Then he stepped forward into the line of sight of the two second year boys.

At once, Potter's eyes lit up. "You're the guy who said we needed to talk, aren't you?"

Nick raised an eyebrow at the surprisingly straightforward comment. Slowly, Nick nodded and motioned towards the dungeons. The redhead didn't seem to like this idea, but Harry brushed him off and followed Nick, leaving the other boy behind to grumble to himself.

Together, the two boys headed down to the portrait of Salazar Slytherin.

As soon as the portrait caught sight of them, it frowned. "_This place is meant for parselmouths. Not for every passing student,"_ Salazar griped, but the portrait swung open anyway, and Nick pulled Harry into the warmth of the secret library.

"_Do you know anyone named Tom Riddle?"_ Nick asked, quickly getting to the point.

Harry didn't answer the question immediately, he was too busy looking around the room in wonder. "_What language is that?" _

Nick turned to look at the open book on Patronuses. He looked back at Harry with a skeptical look. "_It's your language. Our language. Parselscript."_

"_You speak Parseltongue?"_ Harry asked in shock.

"_About as bright as a squib's Luminous"_ Professor Slytherin mumbled condescendingly from his frame.

Nick shot the portrait a dark look. The _last _thing he needed was to offend the only other parselmouth in the school. Particularly, a parselmouth who could potentially explain Nick's homework to him. Priorities.

Nick grinned to himself- He might actually get a decent grade next semester, if this all went over well. After all, he was just barely passing all but potions at the moment. Potions was his best grade, but Nick was starting think that was simply compensation for tutoring so many slytherins for free.

Harry looked at the portrait distractedly but remained standing where he was, commenting, "_I thought only Voldemort could speak Parseltongue."_

Nick rolled his eyes and muttered incoherent insults about European education, before he managed to bite out a reply.

"_Old Moldy Voldy may be one of the last people related to Salazar Slytherin. Hell, he might actually be the only one besides ourselves in Europe that share our language. Leave Europe though, and you will find many thriving parseltongue communities. I, for example, spent the first several years of my life living with and traveling to multiple parseltongue communities."_

Harry Potter was genuinely shocked by this revelation. But then he seemed to think for a moment before he asked, "_Is… Is it possible that there are parseltongue families related to the Potters or the Evans family?"_

"_Your parents?" _Nick guessed. Potter nodded wordlessly. "_Well, it's not impossible. I've never heard of either last name in the parseltongue communities that I've visited, but like I said, there are lots of parselmouths in the world. I could ask around, if you want. Why? Are you looking to change Guardians or something? Don't you live with an aunt or uncle?" _

Potter's expression turned into a scowl. The boy seemed to be considering his response.

Nick looked over the boy once more. The Potter kid was scrawny and short, with unkempt hair and loosely fitting clothes. If Nick was to guess, he would say the boy had a perfectly normal home life but simply didn't eat enough, coupled with having a thinner body type.

That being said, twelve year old boys don't usually resent their guardians _**that**_ much. Sure, Nick was less than impressed that Alex had ditched him at a bloody all-English-speaking school, but he wasn't upset enough to give the mentioning of Alex's name the same look that Potter had just given at the mentioning of his own guardians. It didn't seem completely natural, or normal.

"_If you are hoping to switch the relatives that you are staying with, you could always look at the pureblood list."_

Harry shot Nick a weird look. Nick only carried on.

"_Look, I don't know a lot about European purebloods, but I do know two things: Potter is a pureblood name, and Purebloods intermarry a lot. You are bound to have at least one relative in just about every pureblood family. Just pick the one you like the most and send them a letter. Most Wizards and Witches are happy to take in a child that's been abandoned, trust me."_

"_If nothing else, you are at least a parselmouth"_ Professor Salazar pointed out, trying to help.

Nick nodded enthusiastically, "_In fact, you are more than welcome to come live with me and Alex. If nothing else, it would give you the chance to travel." _

"_Travel?"_ Harry's eyes lit up.

Nick grinned, "_Yep, we will be traveling for most of the summer. Don't know all about where to, exactly, but we'll be traveling nonetheless."_

Harry seemed to ponder this as he nodded slowly, absorbing the new load of information.

"_While you think on it, I have a request to make."_

"_Oh?_" Harry looked up in mild surprise, still thinking.

"_I don't speak or read English very well. The weasley twins are helping me with my speech, but they can't really help me with reading. Since you are both a parselmouth and an English speaker, I was hoping we could have a… well, a trade of sorts. I teach you parselmagic and parselscript, and you teach me English. I need someone to help me understand my assignments, and you're the only person I can ask."_

"_Can I bring Ron and Hermione?"_

"_The youngest Weasley boy and Bushy?" _

"_Bushy?" _Potter asked, eyebrows furrowed. He immediately went on the defense for his close friend.

Nick turned a bright shade of red, realizing he had gotten caught up in the moment, and mumbled out a quick apology for his faux pas. "_I didn't know her name... so I called her bushy in my head. I mean, you know, because of her hair. I hadn't meant to say it out loud… and I promise you I never meant it in a harmful way."_

Harry looked rather unconvinced by this, but he didn't say anything more on the matter.

"_Sure, you can bring them," _Nick quickly assured, wanting to make it up to the boy for his mistake_. "Could we meet down here in the evenings?"_

Harry nodded. "_Hermione's gone home for the holidays, but Ron and I can come tonight after dinner to start"_ he suggested.

Nick grinned and extended a hand to shake on it. The Potter boy gave a small smile, shook hands, and exited back out of the portrait, the way the two of them had come.

After Harry left, Nick curled up on the least rickety-looking chair and began reading a parselscript book on household charms and transfigurations.

(page break

It was well into the evening by the time Salazar's portrait kicked Nick out of the library with orders to go find himself some food.

Nick compiled, and used the twin's map to head over the the kitchens.

Inside were swarms of busy little workers, scrubbing dishes and sharing the latest Hogwarts gossip, when Nick entered the spacious room.

"Can I get some supper?" Nick asked hesitantly.

A young elf popped up rather suddenly in front of Nick. "Certainly certainly, what is Baggy getting you sir?"

Nick shrugged. He thought of some of the English names for dishes he knew, but nothing seemed that appealing at the moment.

The elf's eyes lit up with excitement, interrupting the boy's jumbled thoughts, "Baggy is getting sir a most excellent meal! Wait right here."

Nick waited, and looked around the kitchen curiously. If it weren't for the map and some long-ago advice from the twins, he probably would never have made it here. Clearly, the kitchens weren't really meant for students to stop by regularly.

The room was as big as the great hall, although with some relatively lower ceilings, and the five tables (four house and the staff tables) were all the same size and in the same place as the ones in the great hall. But all around the room were countertops, sinks, and mountains of brass cookware.

The counters and stoves were all perfect house elf height, all the cookware but the soup pots were house elf sized. The soup pots were larger than the biggest cauldrons Nick had ever laid eyes on. The brass monstrosities looked less like cauldrons and more like house elf hot tubs.

Mostly, it was as if everything but the tables was designed just for the elves. And rightly so.

Stuffed into one counter of the kitchen near entrance was a very old, wooden sitting bench.

Nick wandered over to the the bench to sit down, but when he got closer he noticed hinges on the seat. Very gingerly, he lifted the seat up. Underneath lay several perfectly preserved rolls of parchment.

"Here is sir's meal!"

Nick spun around in surprise. A very pleased looking Baggy held out a brown paper bag, opened at the top. Puffs of warm, aromatic air rose up from the bag.

"Thank you, Baggy. I was also wondering, are these parchments used by the elves?"

Baggy shook his head no, his ears flopping around wildly, "No sir. You is wanted to take them? The elves is not needing them."

"Er… Thank you" Nick grinned. He pulled the rolls of parchment out and loaded his arms with them, and Baggy gently placed the paper bag on top.

Walking carefully, Nick headed out the portrait towards the Ravenclaw common room.

When Nick got to the base of the moving staircase, two students stepped into his path, stopping Nick in his tracks.

"Fred, George, what do you want?"

"You weren't at dinner" The both of them accused.

Nick rolled his eyes. He was honestly surprised that the twins had made it to dinner themselves. He was sure they would have pulled some terrible prank and been sent to serve detention the whole day. Especially after their very suspicious behaviour when they had watched the other students leave the school. Maybe they'd only pranked the students heading home…

"Where you going with all that dusty old parchment?" one of the twins asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

"Meeting. Potter and your brother, we're studying together."

Nick tried to delicately sidestep the twins, but George grabbed his dinner from the stack in Nick's hands while Fred swiped half the scrolls.

"We'll come with you. We ought to help Ronniekins with his school work anyway" Fred said, a glint in his eye.

George nodded sympathetically, "Poor thing, last in a great line, didn't get brains OR looks. Needs all the help he can get, I'd say."

Nick didn't even bother trying to dismiss the twins. Slytherin wouldn't be thrilled with yet more people in the parseltongue library, but he'd get over it eventually, and really, there wasn't much the portrait could do save swear in parseltongue. Which, truth be told, was more amusing than anything else.

The twins happily trailed behind Nick, and they chatted away about their progress with their animagus meditations. It seemed like the two of them had taken the challenge very seriously. Nick would wager they put more work into becoming animagi than every Hogwarts course they'd ever taken combined.

"Wait, we have portraits of the founders?" one of the twins asked with surprise.

"_Really?" _Salazar hissed in annoyance. Nick only shrugged. Salazar huffed, but opened to reveal Harry Potter and Ron Weasley sitting on the floor of the library. Ron had a parseltongue book held up in the air, upside down. He was squinting hard at the text, to absolutely no avail.

Harry looked between Nick and something in the library. Nick stepped through and look around curiously. He found two of the rickety chairs in a pile of wood splinter.

"_I don't like Gryffindors" _Professor Slytherin declared haughtily before taking up a book to read.

Fred and George both squinted and frowned up at the portrait. "Whatcha doing hanging around a slimy slytherin?"

Salazar looked up from his book long enough to level a glare to rival Snape's.

The twins both cowered behind Nick.

"This is his library" Nick explained.

"Why are _you _two here?" Ron questioned. Nick grabbed his dinner and parchments and took a seat next to Potter. "And what are those dusty things for? Your know, research is more Hermione's area."

Nick pushed the scrolls back towards one of the piles of splinters and twigs that was once a chair. "Those are for me to study later" Nick explained coolly.

Ron made a look of disgust. "Are they in snake tongue, too?"

"You're a parseltongue?" Fred asked in surprise. Both the twins looked up from Ron's poor, mangled transfiguration textbook. Nick nodded.

"You a slytherin then?" Both the twins narrowed their eyes at Nick, asking with equally dark expressions, "...You the heir?"

Nick glared at the twins, uttering a firm, "No." The others softened their expressions."Some boy named Tom Riddle is the heir. He doesn't seem to be a student, but I hear he talks to Andrus."

"Andrus?" The twins, Harry and Ron all asked in unison.

Salazar looked up from his book in mild interest, chiming in. "He is my familiar. This Tom Riddle boy, should he truly be one of my descendants, his picture will be on the self-updating family tapestry."

"You speak English?" Ron blurted out.

Salazar gave the boy a scathing look, "How ever _did _you make it into this school?" When Ron opened his mouth to reply, Slytherin cut in, "That was rhetorical, boy." He then turned his gaze to Nick, switching to parseltongue. "_The tapestry should be either in the Helga's room of requirement or the headmaster's chambers. I would suggest checking Helga's room first."_

"_That reminds me, if we can't find or stop this Tom figure, could we break the bonds somehow?" _Nick looked up from his food hopefully.

Slytherin paused in thought.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Harry asked dubiously.

"Is he sure _what's_ a good idea? Ron asked, completely at a loss amidst the switched languages.

Nick looked to Harry to translate, but Salazar cut in again, "_I am not sure. There is a book in here, bottom shelf near the back, last book at the end. Bounds and Bonds of a Familiar by Esquire Slytherin. There might be something in there. If not…"_

Nick shook his head, "_I have a friend from China who knows a great deal about these things, as well as a phoenix friend who broke the slave bond to his master. If the book doesn't come up with anything, one of my friends should know something." _

The twins looked at Nick thoughtfully, "We might not know what you're saying, but-"

"-We can clearly see you say a lot more in parseltongue. _Much_ chattier than the Nick we've come to know and love."

Nick shrugged, "It's my first tongue."

The three Weasleys seemed surprised at this.

"Is… is that even possible?" Ron asked. Everyone looked quite a bit more interested in Nick now.

Nick grinned. "Clearly," he drawled in a dubois imitation of Snape.

Ron looked a little uneasy, "But _parseltongue_…" Harry punched his friend lightly, clearly telling him to shut it.

"I don't want others knowing" Nick said a little uneasily. He hadn't really thought this through when he said Ron and the twins could come.

Wizarding society in Europe was often extreme, and if either of the twins said anything against him, Nick had no doubt that he would be locked away for good. Especially with the chamber being open. Panic began to grow in his chest What if none of the Weasleys believed him? People might start to think he'd attacked the other students. No. What then? What if the school board heard about all of this, and told Alex, and Alex _believed _them? Would Alex let him rot in Azkaban? Surely at least Faer would believe him…

"Earth to Nick? You ok mate? No pre-existing conditions we ought to know about? A ghost in the family, maybe? You're a little pale... and that's coming from a _ginger_." Fred grinned.

Nick only smiled a little halfheartedly back, "You won't tell?" he asked.

The twins put on a show of making it look like they were taking Nick's request into consideration, but then George caught the look of visibly growing panic on Nick's face, and elbowed Fred to cut it out. "Look mate, we may not get why you hang out with all those Bat-loving, interbreed losers, but we would _never _sell you out. You've been nothing but helpful to all of us so far. And, dare we say it, you've been a pretty stellar friend."

Fred nodded enthusiastically, "Who would brew your potions if we didn't have you"

"_You're_ the one who's been helping them?!" Ron yelped in outrage.

The twins grinned maniacally and Nick gave a sheepish smile in return. Having everyone know he'd helped the twins regularly might not be as bad as everyone knowing he was a parselmouth, but it would certainly make life a tad harder.

Of all people in the room, Ron seemed to sense where Nick's thoughts were straying.

"Oi, a free supply of antidotes to anything that those two" Ron thrust a finger at his brothers, "slip me, and I won't say a word about any of this."

The twins slumped, looking rather like a pair of wounded puppies, but Nick nodded happily. He always brewed the antidotes anyway, so it was no bother keeping Ron silent.

"Shouldn't we maybe, I dunno, focus?" Harry suggested hesitantly.

Nick nodded contentedly and settled his homework down in front of him, and a very basic children's book in parseltongue in front of Harry. Much to Nick's surprise, the twins began helping their younger brother with his transfiguration. The two older brothers had never struck Nick as terribly studious, but they must have been reading up in more than just animagus books lately to have such a keen understanding of transfiguration.

The evening passed quickly, with a lot of progress in Ron's abilities and a slow but steady start to Nick's and Harry's abilities.

_( page break)_

The next day, Nick and Grant flew around the pitch for a while between breakfast and lunch. THe two wandered into lunch around the halfway point and settled themselves with Cho and the hufflepuff girls.

"I'm surprised you're not frozen entirely," Cho teased as Nick and Grant brushed snow off their shoulders. "And I thought you didn't like quidditch" she said to Grant.

Grant shrugged, "I like the game well enough, I just don't get all competitive with it. Oi, pass the pie back!" Grant barked at Nick.

Cho grabbed the pie tray from Nick and nabbed the last piece of pumpkin pie, much to Grant's rage.

"Women!" he spat. Grant looked torn between giving Cho what for and acting like the gentlemen he was raised to be. Seeing Nick was distracted, Grant took the easy way out and grabbed Nick's piece of pie instead.

Cho laughed, but with a flick of his wand, Nick stole Cho's pie for himself.

"Nick!" she yelped in anger and surprise.

Suddenly a gust of wind swept over the group, cooling the pie until little bits of frost appeared. Looking rather put out, Grant slid his pie over to Cho.

"Are you a wizard?" Nick asked disbelievingly. Cho laughed and cast a warming charm on her pie.

"Bloody hell" Grant muttered.

"So Faer, you have news?" Cho asked the newest visiting member of their table. Faer grinned and passed the girl a slowly cracking mini dragon egg. Cho squealed in excitement, everything else forgotten, and pushed her pie back to Grant. Grant grinned and gobbled up the returned slice of pie before it could change hands again.

Cho gently helped the little dragon step out of its shell. Gradually, most of the remaining student body and the those at the staff table moved to get a look at the thumb-sized dragon.

"It'll grow to about the size of your arm," Faer explained, "but it'll take at least a few years to get that big. It'll need a lot of attention during the next few weeks. I know you probably have time now, but if you need help I can lend a hand. I will be around until at least March."

Nick looked up in mild surprise. Normally the phoenix was much more transient than that.

Faer shrugged, "Mao said he wanted to visit after he got your last letter about the petrifications."

Nick's eyes lit up. "Actually, I have some ideas about that. I think I will need either your or Mao's help though. I need to look a few things up first."

Faer nodded, "Do so tonight then, Mao will be here tomorrow to meet with the headmaster.

Nick ate three bites of his dinner, then waved off Grant.

"Blowing quidditch off for research?" Grant asked.

Nick shrugged in a half hearted sorry-not-sorry kind of way.

"Well at least we all know you're a real Ravenclaw now," joked Cho.

"Wanna take his place?" Grant asked her. Cho indicated to the tiny dragon purring softly in her palm.

"Ask that gryffindor girl you've been around lately. She plays, I think" Cho suggested. Faer peered over Cho's shoulder to coo at the tiny dragon.

Happily forgotten, Nick started from the great hall and headed back to Salazar Slytherin's library.

(Page Break)

Nick looked over at the scrolls that lay forgotten by the chairs but dismissed them as he searched for the book on Bound and Bonds.

The afternoon and most of the evening was spent reading, and by the time the twins, Ron and Harry showed up with dinner for the group and homework to do, Nick had read the book cover to cover - and found nothing. There were a few spells that might be changed slightly to work, but Nick didn't feel confident doing such a thing himself.

The evening was spent with the twins and Ron working on transfiguration and charms, Harry on basic parselscript, and Nick on written English.

(Page break)

At breakfast the next day, the twins pulled Nick to sit with the Gryffindors so they could whisper quietly about their plans for their animagus transformations.

Shortly after deciding a next chance to meet, the doors burst open to reveal Faer with Fawks on his shoulder and a middle-aged Chinese man, walking amicably together. The older man was prattling on in a language no one seemed to recognise, and Faer looked bored out of his mind.

"Nick!" Faer exclaimed less than tactfully, clearly ignoring whatever Mao Jain had been saying.

Nick bowed respectfully to Mao Jain as he glided passed the Ravenclaw table. As he passed, Nick offered a customary greeting to one's elders in very broken Chinese. Mao nodded his head slightly towards Nick in acknowledgement.

"You must be the great Shaman, Mao Jain" Dumbledore greeted merrily, "Please, come sit and have breakfast. You must have had a very long flight!"

Nick was willing to bet the old Shaman had simply apparated from China to just outside the grounds of Hogwarts, as he was very powerful, but the shaman didn't bother to correct or deny Dumbledore. Faer took a seat with Nick and the two watched Mao sit down with the Hogwarts headmaster. Neither could hear the ancient wizard or shaman, but they could see that the two powerful men appeared to be getting along famously.

Faer's lips pursed in a slight pout, muttering "I was almost hoping they wouldn't get along. I don't really need anyone encouraging Mao's crazy old man antics."

Nick hit Faer's arm lightly, "quiet, if he hears you he will make you pay."

The two looked over at Moa just in time to the the Shamon glaring at the two of them.

Nick ducked his head in embarrassment but Faer stuck his tongue out.

"I'm older and a lot more powerful than he is Nick" Faer said quietly. Nick looked over at Faer for a brief moment. The phoenix was right. It was just easy to forget that Faer was incredibly old and powerful when he acted and looked like an ill bred teenager most of the time. "Mao might like to talk like he owns China, but he knows I can easily remove him if I see fit too".

Nick looked at his friend in surprise, it was a foreign thought to Nick that Mao might actually fear Faer to some degree but clearly Faer made a point to foster at least a healthy dose of begrudging respect from the ancient shaman.

"In any case, you had an idea about that beast that has been petrifying students" Faer shifted the conversation.

Nick nodded slowly.

"Alright, after breakfast Mao will wake those who have been petrified, then we will hear out your idea" Faer decided.

For a brief moment Faer and Mao meet eyes, then the ancient shaman nodded in agreement. _Telepathy?_ Nick thought to himself.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"I say! I am surprised, Dumbledore, that you never asked me to wake the students. If I had known you needed help, I would have been the first to offer my expertise!" Professor Lockhart strutted lightly behind Dumbledore and Mao as the group made their way towards the hospital wing.

"A conveniently timed offer" Professor Snape muttered in Professor Mcgonagall's direction. A few steps behind the pair, Faer and Nick had to cover up their laughter with unconvincing coughs.

"That is very kind of you Professor Lockhart, but I am quite sure Shaman Mao can handle it from here."

If Professor Lockhart understood that he was being dismissed, he showed no signs of it.

"Ah… Lockhart, yes?" Mao asked sweetly, but for those who listening more closely there was something subtly vicious about the way he'd addressed the professor in question.

"I had heard a very interesting story once. A friend of mine went to deal with an out of control dragon in the southern provinces, but shortly after the dragon was defeated, the man lost his memory. Not a month later I heard that _you _were, in fact... the one to defeat the dragon. Is that not the strange?"

Professor Lockhart seemed to panic for a fraction of a second before composing himself. "Yes, well, dreadful ordeal that was. That was a few years back, but of course, _now_ you can read all about it in my very first book…"

"Only the poor lad had lost his memory. A rather well done obliviation charm" Mao plowed on, none too concerned with the growing distress apparent in Lockhart's eyes.

"Poor lad must have come across s-some…"

"Very strange in China" Mao said the name of his home country with a purr, "that any wizard _or _shaman would use a Latin spell."

"Very unfortunate?"

"Especially seeing as only European countries teach the Latin spells. Even the Americas no longer use those spells in their public education systems."

"Dark times they were…" Lockart seemed to be floundering for some sort of explanation deep within the dizzy abyss of his empty mind. He turned, mouth opened slightly as if to excuse himself, but it appeared that none other than Professor Snape had stepped into his path, all too inconveniently for Lockhart.

Mao nodded along in feigned sympathy, "Very... unfortunate in_deed_. I am most lucky to announce that a mutual friend was with there when the poor young man was obliterated."

A swirling mist formed in the air by shamon Mao's head. Slowly, a fox-like creature appeared hazily in the air before the group. It looked a bit like a cross between a ghost and a patronus.

The spirit hissed and thrilled at Lockhart.

Dumbledore seemed to understand what the spirit was saying as his silvery eyebrows slowly raised higher and higher, all while the spirit's confusing tirade went on.

A bewildered Professor Lockhart made a last-ditch effort to cover his tracks, but at this point headmaster Dumbledore would not hear a single word of it.

"As this crime was not committed on British soil, there is nothing the Aurors can do," murmured the headmaster to the creature of mist, "However, you are no longer welcome at this school" he declared, now talking to Lockhart, "Please pack your things and go. May you never step foot in this school again" Dumbledore thundered, making the newly-sacked professor quake in his freshly polished boots.

Lockhart skidded backwards into a sneering professor Snape, before making a mad dash down the halls, not even making the least bit of effort to hide his fear of the irate headmaster.

"Headmaster…" Professor Mcgonagall looked between the fading spirit and her headmaster, but Dumbledore shook his head.

"Such crimes should _not _be repeated in polite company."

Mao snorted. "Ignorance protects no one, headmaster. This nasty little creature" Mao indicated towards the snivelling shivering mess that was Professor Lockheart, " waited until the lad had defeated the dragon - only then did it attack. He _beat_ and _raped_ the poor lad... before wiping his memory.".

Both professor Mcgonagall and even Professor Snape paled significantly, "Surely he _wouldn't..._"

The spirit reappeared long enough to hiss loudly, then popped out back out of existence.

"My friend," Mao nodded to where the spirit had been just moments ago, "has a very clear memory of what happened. Unfortunately, spirits can not interact with the physical world without the aid of a shaman, so my friend was forced to helplessly watch as the lad was beaten and... broken. The boy has never been the same since. He lost his abilities as a shaman, I am sorry to say," The color in Dumbledore's already-weary face waned, pale at the comment. For a moment, he was lost in memories, "And he has never been able to understand the spirits since. It was a great loss for the shaman and spirit community on that day."

Sobered by this brief glimpse into the past, the group moved on to the hospital wing. Faer and Nick stood at the door with the professors and watched in amusement and amazement as Mao chanted an ancient parseltongue spell to wake the students - as well as the caretaker's cat and the gryffindor ghost: Sir nearly Headless Nick.

The professors seemed far less comfortable with Mao's use of parseltongue, but they all kept quiet about it.

Slowly, the students began wake, and the hospital's healer witch shooed the group out of the hospital wing without another word.

"As much as I am glad that the blithering idiot is no longer teaching in the same school as my Nick attends, I do feel some level of guilt for leveling you without a professor for the remainder of the school year."

Nick instantly saw where the old manipulative shaman was going with this and nudged Faer, trying to get the phoenix to intervene, but Faer only shrugged as he let Mao go on.

"Perhaps I could take your Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position for the remainder of the year. It would also give me a chance to deal with this chamber nonsense."

The headmaster's eyes twinkled merrily, "That sounds like a splendid idea. I am sure you will want to catch up with young Nicholas, but perhaps after dinner we could finalise the details over a lovely game of chess, hm?"

Mao agreed and nudged Nick and Faer off down the halls. Begrudgingly, Nick led the two down to the dungeon, where the parseltongue library waited.

"Faer? Mao? You two are STILL alive? The last time you visited my library was in..." Professor slytherin's question was one of amazement and shock.

"Just how bloody old _are _you two" Nick asked, exasperated, and it earned him a smart rap on the head from the phoenix boy's knuckles.

"That was hardly respectful" Faer chastised lightly. Mao looked ready to give Nick a far sterner lecture, but when Faer moved Nick into the library Mao opted to stay quiet.

Mao turned a stern eye to Professor Slytherin's portrait. "So, your snake is running wild,"

Slytherin looked righteously indignant. "He is doing _no _such thing. Some welp by the name Tom Riddle has taken control of the bond and is forcing Andrus to attack students."

"One of your descendants causing chaos, I'm shocked," Faer responded sarcastically. With a flick of his wrist, the library was instantly restored to it's original glory, leaving the rest of the group in utter amazement.

Nick's jaw fell a few centimeters, as he looked around in awe at the beautiful shelves that were once so worn, once so covered with cobwebs and time's consequences.

The pile of sticks and splinters reformed into intricately designed chairs, softened considerably with well-stuffed, dark green cushions.

"What do you want done, then? Off your descendant or break the bond? Andrus will not live long if he is not bound to a powerful wizarding family. Mind, if he attacks students again, another may demand the serpent's head." Faer noted softly, uncharacteristically kind in his tone to the portrait.

Salazar Slytherin didn't have to think long, "Kill the whelp. I hardly need my line carried on by some nonsensical, power-hungry fool. I already have Voldemort himself claiming to be a member of my line."

"Do you think the Tom Riddle boy is a relative of Voldemort? It would make sense if he were. If he were from any other line, he would fall behind Nicholas in concession and therefore have no power over Andrus," Mao pointed out.

Nick ran his hand along the newly polished wooden floor. His hand seemed to glide over the dark brown wooden panels as if the floor was made of silk, not wood. He largely stayed out of the conversation; as long as Andrus wasn't killed and the students of Hogwarts were safe, Nick didn't really care what happened to Tom Riddle.

"He must be. You will need to look at the self-updating tapestry. Nick will help you find it."

Faer and Mao looked at Nick expectantly.

"We have to go to the seventh floor" Nick explained, fruitlessly hoping the trek would deter the two. No such luck, though. Faer and Mao motioned for Nick to lead the way.

On their way up, the pair passed a very bored looking Harry Potter and Ron Weasley just leaving the library. Nick nodded to the pair and indicate towards the moving staircase.

The boys grinned and nodded. They disappeared down the hall. A moment later the softest of tiptoes could be heard not to far behind Mao and Faer. If either of the ancient men noticed, they didn't bother to show it.

When the small group finally reached Helga's Room of Requirement, Nick was a little stumped at what he was meant to do. Professor Slytherin had only given Nick the location, but there was nothing of importance in the hall that Professor Slytherin told them to seek out.

"You have to walk past the door three times while thinking about where you need to be."

The entire group spun around in surprise. A very out-of-place Salazar Slytherin was dodging the foot of a dancing troll, in a portrait aptly titled "Barnabas the Barmy Teaches Trolls Ballet."

"You can leave your portrait? Faer asked in surprise.

Salazar swiftly moved out of the way of a troll again. "If I had a wand…" Salazar muttered darkly. "Yes, I can go between almost any Hogwarts Portraits, as well as the spare few portraits in the properties that are still in my family name." Salazar sidestepped another troll and nearly collided with Barnabas the Barmy himself. "You have your instructions. Find my descendant and do _away _with him. I won't tell you again." With that less than cheerful goodbye, Salazar stalked out of the portrait frame.

"Pleasant fellow he is" Faer sang, and the tiniest bit of a freezing song crept into the Ice Phoenix's voice.

Nick did as instructed and thought of the Slytherin self-updating family tapestry over and over again while he walked up and down the hall. He needed to get to the tapestry. He needed to get to a place where he could find the tapestry.

Finally, a door appeared for Nick. The group stared at the doorway, before they wandered in.

The room was barren and very cold. A chilly breeze floated down from somewhere above and crashed through the small group. Everyone shivered, except for Faer.

"Fun fact" Faer noted cheerfully, "Yukoners call this a lazy breeze, since it blows _through _you, instead of taking the time to go around".

"I call it intolerable" Nick snapped back, and tried in vain to pull his winter robe around him even tighter.

Mao ignored the bickering, and besides a very slightly blue tinge to the man's skin, he looked largely unaffected by the cold.

"I believe we have an answer of sorts."

Faer and Nick turned to see Mao pointing to a huge tapestry that covered an entire wall, floor to ceiling and clearly several stories tall.

"There are still a few descendants of Slytherin alive, but an old head of house is one: Tom Marvolo Riddle. A.k.a… Voldemort. Unbelievable…. They are one and the _same._"

Faer and Nick stepped closer to the tapestry to take a closer look. Sure enough the finely woven title of Head of Family sat neatly above the two names.

"So Voldemort himself is in the school?" Faer asked uneasily.

"Perhaps not all the time, but often enough to control Andrus." Mao suggested.

Faer looked at Mao and the pair nodded in sync with each other. "This must be discussed with the Headmaster at once" Faer explained to Nick. The pair disappeared out the door leaving a shivering Nick to stare at his family tapestry. There was probably more family information on this tapestry then Alex's foggy memory had ever offered Nick.

"So, you're related to old snake face?" Ron asked, rather tactlessly. Two heads popped into sight from behind.

Harry grinned at Nick, "Everyone has a black sheep in the family I s'pose."

Nick laughed outright- black sheep indeed. "You might very well be on here somewhere, Potter." Nick suggested. The trio took a few steps closer to the tapestry and started searching for any sight of some familiar names.

"Look at Voldemort's name" Harry said pulling Ron and Nick closer. Ron paled at the sound of someone using the madman's actual name.

"Look, it branches off in very fine silver lettering… it's hardly visible at all. So strange… Tom Marvolo Diary, Peverell Ring?" The group raised their eyebrows, but the list only went on. "Hufflepuff's Cup, Slytherin Locket, Ravenclaw Diadem- does that say _Harry Potter?" _

All eyes turned to Harry, who stuttered out, "W-why is my name here?" He leaned forward and looked at the tapestry more closely, as if the answers might very well be woven into the tapestry just below his name, a name that really should _not _have been there to begin with.

"I don't know, mate" Ron murmured uneasily.

"Why don't we try asking the room?" Nick suggested. "Leave and then come back thinking of these objects. Maybe we can find answers then."

Ron and Harry nodded their agreement, and the trio left.

This time it was Harry who summoned the room. The door reappeared, and the room they entered looked the same as the tapestry room, only now the tapestry was gone and in the center of the room sat a small object that looked like a tiara, sitting innocently enough on a stone pedestal. Several books sat on a rickety wooden table. A closer look showed that the volumes were all about the objects listed on the tapestry. However, the objects themselves were nowhere to be found.

"Do… do you think that this could really be the Ravenclaw Diadem?" Ron asked as he picked it up with eager hands.

His eyes glossed over for a brief moment- then suddenly he screamed, flinging the delicate bit of metal across the room as hard as he could. Harry and Nick nearly jumped out of their skin in surprise.

"Ron! Mate, what happened?" Harry asked, panicked.

Ron pointed to the little hunk of metal, "It….I…..He… He-who-must-not-be-named… HERE!" Ron shrieked, not even attempting to pull himself together.

Harry and Nick shared a confused look and turned back to Ron. "What are you talking about?" asked Nick.

"He's IN there. I _heard _him!" Ron's face had lost all colour and he was visibly shaken.

Nick took his winter cloak off, walked over to the tossed tiara, and gingerly wrapped the relic in the fabric. He was careful not to touch it himself. "I know someone who deals with dark objects all the time, but we have to leave the castle grounds to meet him" he muttered, pensive.

"Your English is getting a lot better, mate" Ron commented thoughtfully, off-topic and temporarily forgetting all that happened just seconds ago.

"Er...thanks, I think," Nick said.

"Anyways, I have a map that will lead us to some old secret passages so we can leave the castle, but we will need your cloak" Nick nodded towards Harry.

Harry nodded. "That's fine. Let's go tonight. The twins will probably just assume we forgot to grab them since they can't get into the library without us. The new professor and the ice phoenix will just assume we're here. Probably. No one should be looking for us until curfew."

"Right, we should be going then," Ron shot a very distrusting look at the bundle of metal and cloth in Nick's arms.

Nick paid no mind to Ron and busied himself with finding the fastest way out of the castle.

(*page break here*)

The trio weren't twenty feet outside of the school bounds, when a man stumbled onto the path.

Nick and Ron had the self-preservation to take a quick few steps back, but Harry remained in the middle of the path, unsure of what to do.

"Potter" The man growled.

"Move" Nick and Ron yelled at the same time, but it was hopeless. The man had already grabbed Harry's arm and the pair had vanished with a loud _pop!_

"Bloody hell, what do we do now?!" Ron yelled. Nick didn't give the ginger a chance to descend into hysterics. Grabbing the boy's arm, Nick thought very clearly of Alex's house all the way up in Norway.

"_Take me where I wish to go"_ he hissed as he invoked his parselmagic. With a much quieter _pop_, Nick pulled Ron through several countries to finally appear with _thud, _smack in the middle of the grand entrance hall of a small castle, somewhere in Norway. They had to find Alex.

(* page break here*)

"ALEX!" Nick bellowed as loud as he could. The name bounced and ricocheted off the old stone walls running down the castle.

Not seconds later, a very startled Alexander appeared in front of Nick and his friend. The vampire gripped Nick and twirled him around a few times, observing him for signs of injury.

"_You are alright, yes? What is going on?"_

Alex didn't wait for a response, but instead started running all sorts of diagnostic spells in all sorts of different magics. Nick only vaguely recognised the Latin and Parselmagic incantations as he stood there, silent for a minute. Although, he thought he recognized a Chinese Shaman incantation, along with a blood magic spell, which he knew derived from northern Canada.

Nick tried to wave off Alex, when the sound of Ron coming to snapped Nick back to the present. He hadn't even noticed that Ron had passed out during their - very unexpected - international trip.

"_It's Potter. You need to find him. Here"_ Nick grabbed the invisibility cloak from Ron and thrust it into Alex's hands, "_this is his. Find him, please. I think the other guy meant to kill him."_

Alex looked down at the cloak in unbridled shock. "_This... is mine. This is one of the three objects I've been searching for- for centuries..."_

"_Brilliant, consider it a gift from Potter. Now _FIND HIM!" Nick switched to English with his last breath for the mere fact that yelling in this language was much louder.

"_Right, wait here"_ Alex answered with a firm nod.

Nick was finally able to take a deep breath once Alex disappeared.

"Ey, mate? Where exactly are we?"

Nick had completely forgotten about Ron again, and jumped nearly a foot when Ron broke the silence.

"Er… one of my uncle's castles." Nick responded hesitantly.

Ron looked around. Slowly, he began to nod as he processed the information and new surroundings. Just then something caught the redhead's eye, over in the sitting room. "We _are _still in Britain though, right?"

"Well... not really" said Nick, a bit embarrassed. Strictly speaking, traveling between countries without the proper paperwork wasn't legal. Nick generally traveled with Alex and his entourage of dark and dangerous creatures, so no one ever really asked too many questions. Ron, on the other hand, would be in some _huge _shit if anyone found out about this. "We miiight be in Norway." Nick finally admitted.

Much to Nick's shock and surprise, Ron did not look the least bit upset, he looked positively thrilled. "I've never been to Norway, wait till Charlie hears about this! He'll be so jealous. He's always wanted to go to Norway and here I am!"

"Although we can't really leave the manor" Nick told him. It wasn't as if the pair could just go off exploring Norway while they waited for Alex and Harry to show up. Really, it was just like visiting any other annoyingly drafty castle.

This didn't seem to deter Ron much though, who poked around the front entryway. Clearly, he was looking for a tour from Nick.

Nick sighed, but decided to comply. "We can look around the castle if you want, though. Just don't leave my sight. I don't think anyone will be up yet, but If we do run into someone I don't want them thinking you're... food or something." Nick didn't think a single sentence had ever crushed someone's enthusiasm as effectively as Nick's warning.

"Food?" Ron squeaked. The boy's already pale face turned about a ten shades lighter. "Who would think we're food?"

"Not we, you." Nick clarified, "But if you are with me they should recognise you as a guest."

"_Should_?! And what if they don't?"

And the hysteria is back, Nick thought grimly. "There's nothing to worry about, just don't wander off is all I'm saying."

"Who lives here?"

"Who's the snack?" A voice asked from the archway of the sitting room. Nick nearly cast a hex at the man leaning by a doorway ever so calmly. He was clearly just acting like he was to freak poor Ron out.

"Piss off" Nick caught the eye of the speaker. Nick was aiming for threatening and intimidating, but the man merely smiled, flashing a set of pearly whites containing two very sharp, pointed teeth. The bastard had no reason to have his teeth unsheathed, he most likely just wanted to see if he could make the ginger faint.

Ron nearly did. He stumbled backwards into Nick, whispering fearfully, "_Vampire._"

"Snack. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Leave the guest be," Another man pulled on the intruder's collar and pointed to the opposite end of the castle. Clearly, dismissing the nosy bastard from the room before he could cause further anxiety.

Ron looked a bit more comfortable once the first intruder had left. But he still looked at the new man a little uncomfortably. Ron glanced at Nick, probably searching for some sort of introduction or an explanation. Probably both.

"Ron Weasley, this is Octavius Weasley. I would think the two of you are somehow related," Nick began by way of introduction. "Octavius is a couple of generations old. Probably a great uncle" he suggested.

"I was forced from my home and disinherited from all wills, as well as blasted from the family tapestry shortly after being turned." Octavius offered for explanation. "As I have a hard time believing the Weasley family has suddenly become friendly towards Vampires, I am going to assume you will want the sitting room to yourselves until Alex returns."

Ron looked a little ashamed at the mention of Octavius' history. Nick hadn't known Harry's friend personally for more than a couple of days, so it was a little hard to judge, but it seemed a bit out of character when Ron awkwardly insisted that Octavius should stay with them.

Octavious seemed equally surprised and guarded, but he gracefully accepted and lead the pair into the sitting room.

The sitting room was like most others Alex designed. The furniture was French or Italian made. With the exception of more saxton designs in the cabinets to the side. The room was a barrage of colours, in Nick's opinion, none of which matched each other. The chairs on the left had one pattern in blue, the chairs on the right a different pattern and red. The carpets laid on the floor looked almost turkish and was made in browns and oranges. It was a decorative mess.

"I'll prepare some tea," Octavius announced, taking a second look at Ron before reconsidering, "Better make it hot choco instead. Wait here. The others will be informed immediately that this room is off limits."

When Octavius had left, Ron took a shaky breath and seemed to calm down significantly.

"I thought blasting family off the tree was a _Malfoy _thing" Ron said with a look of disgust, more to himself than to Nick, but Nick nodded along anyways just in case Ron had suddenly decided to include him in the conversation. "I mean, I'm not a big fan of Vampires or anything but I thought family was family, ya know?"

'Was that rhetorical, or should I answer?' Nick asked himself when Ron didn't go on.

Ron saved Nick the mental debate, "I mean, what if Charlie gets bitten by something when he's working with dragons? I heard there are werewolves near the dragon reserve. Or what about Bill? He studies curse breaking. What if something happens and he gets changed into some dark creature? I'm not really just supposed to pretend he's not my brother anymore, am I?"

That last question clearly wasn't rhetorical. Nick wasn't really sure how to answer that. "I guess … just don't then? … If you want to keep your family then just … do" Nick mumbled awkwardly.

"In the case of someone getting changed into some 'dark creature'" Both Nick and Ron jumped at the sudden presence of Octavius, "I would suggest showing them to me. I would gladly help out any of the Weasleys in need. Even if the same hand is not extended back."

Ron took his hot chocolate from Octavius and nodded along as he listened to the vampire. "Are we related?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Well my brothers are Septimus Weasley…" Octavius was clearly going to go on, but Ron cut him off.

"That's my Grandfather. On my dad's side, that is. Wow... so I guess that makes you my Great Uncle. Did you know my dad?" he asked eagerly, "Arthur Weasley?" Ron sounded genuinely thrilled.

Octavius seemed equally excited to have some sort of link to his old family. "Yes. Briefly. Edward, Arthur and Richard. Arthur was by far the most quiet of the three. Richard was always getting into trouble with this and that. Though come to think of it, Arthur _did _have a habit of causing all sorts of problems for his parents. I remember my brother in a raving mad mood one Thanksgiving when Arthur took apart the family clock. He set it so it said he was always home. My sister-in-law noticed him by chance. The lad was playing quidditch with the neighbourhood children, he was only four or five at the time. Not old enough to fly really, certainly not old enough to fiddle with a wizard clock."

Ron looked like Christmas had come early. A certain gleam in his eyes made Nick think some of this was bound to be A. repeated to all the weasley children B. used as leverage against Ron's father, and C. bound to be brought up at any and all family gatherings.

"We didn't have a lot of money, as I am sure you are aware. Mother was blasted off the Malfoy tree. You would think it would have made her a bit more sympathetic to me. In any case, not having a lot of spare cash we often had to make do for christmas. I remember one year, Arthur was probably five. Yes, actually, because this was the same year he fixed the clock. In any case, the three boys had all really wanted brooms. I had agreed to get Edward one since he was a little older and around the flying age, but none of us had the funds for Arthur or Richard to get brooms. What's more, they were much too small." He shook his head solemnly. "Arthur heartily disagreed. Late christmas evening after the presents and dinner and all that, the adults were sitting in the kitchen, having a last drink before we all left for our own homes, when Arthur took my wand from where I had rather carelessly left it on a side table. He went to the backyard and bundled up some sticks, then tied them to a thick tree branch. One way or another, he charmed the two makeshift brooms to fly." Everyone gaped, but Octavius went on. "Edward snuck out with his _own _broom when he saw his brothers flying around. When my sister-in-law looked out the kitchen window and saw the three boys flying over her vegetable garden, I thought she was going to eat them alive."

Ron grinned ear to ear. "Uncle Edward mentioned something about a homemade broom to the twins once, I have never seen my Father quiet someone so quickly or so adamantly. The twins are going to love hearing about this."

"How many siblings do you have?" Octavius asked in curiosity.

Ron blushed just a tad. "There's Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred and George, myself and Ginny. Seven in all."

Octavius grinned happily, "Ah, being from a big family is positively the best way to grow up. I never understood why Abraxas Malfoy got all high and mighty about being an only child. It clearly did him no good. None whatsoever." He frowned in thought, muttering, "The stuck up prat."

Seeming to realise how old Ron and Nick were Octavius hastily went on, "Not that you should be saying anything of the sort of any recent Malfoys or any Malfoys at all really."

Ron grinned madly. He nodded to his great uncle, but he clearly had every intention of calling the Malfoy's any number of unpleasant things.

"But you must tell me about your family! How is Arthur? Who did he end up marrying?"

Ron seemed happy enough to talk at length about his family. He shared heroic stories of Bill and Charlie's adventures beyond Hogwarts, lemented both Percy's and his mother's strict nature, and shared amusing stories of both his father's many inventions and Fred and George's constant prank ideas.

"You know, I'm hard pressed to believe that some of those Magic Muggle artifacts aren't just some of Arthur's inventions."

Ron laughed at this, "Well there _was _this one time when Dad was investigating something he'd actually made but thrown out. It made its way into a muggle garage sale and Dad had a hard time getting it back. No one from Dad's work seemed to mind much. They're all a little fanatical about Magical Muggle artifacts."

"There are people who buy that sort of thing." Nick said. Both Weasleys seems a little surprised to be reminded that Nick was even there. Clearly, the pair had forgotten him in their reminiscing. "There is a whole market in the muggle and squib world for magical muggle articles. I met a guy who made a living off of selling magically enhanced toasters."

Ron frowned, "But anything electric doesn't work around magic".

Nick shook his head, "There are all sorts of ways to mix the two. I don't know all the science behind it, but a branch of private scientists started the market when they found a magic chess set."

"But… That's illegal though" insisted Ron.

Octavius cut in, "Not in Norway. Many counties have communities of mixed Muggle, Magic, and squib populations."

Nick nodded affirmatively, "There are a select few countries who even have Magic, Muggle, Squib, _and _Creature communities."

Ron looked floored by the revelation.

A loud _Pop! _in the front entryway caught the attention of everyone in the sitting room.

"Alex?" Nick asked Octavius. The vampire nodded and led Ron and Nick back into the entrance area.

A very green but otherwise unharmed Harry Potter was doubled over, coughing and wheezing and very much alive. Alex, on the other hand, appeared otherwise unruffled from the trip.

"Why were you off school grounds in the first place?" Alex asked when everyone was once again in the living room. Ron and Nick both sipped refilled cups of hot chocolate. Harry had passed, pleading a still queasy stomach.

All three boys lit up at the mention of their original purpose. "The Tiria" Nick dashed back into the entranceway to grab the bundle up winter clock.

"We found this in the school. Ron thinks it is connected to Moldy-Voldy," explained Nick. For the benefit of Ron, the group silently agreed to continue speaking in English.

Alex picked up the object that was presented to him. He twirled it in his fingers, focused, exploring its magic. It seemed as if the vampire was wholly unaffected by whatever magic it possessed.

"My assumption is that it is a horcrux." This earned him a round of confused faces, but he ignored this. "However... It is hard to say. Clearly there is a bit of soul in here but whether it is a failed attempt at a family-bound object or truly a naive attempt at immortality, I cannot say."

"What _is _a horcrux?" Harry asked, a bit uneasily. The mention of souls and magic seemed to mean something far more sinister than anything he had ever dealt with in the past.

Alex nodded, more to himself than anyone else. "I suppose it is too much to ask to put something like _horcruxes_ in the common syllabus. It is a rather unique thing to stumble upon these days. A Horcrux is when a magical creature- a wizard, to be specific- tears their soul apart and places that piece of their soul into another creature. Or, in this case, an object."

"It was first invented by a man attempting to magically bind a fox to him as his familiar. It evolved, and the concept eventually separated into two branches. One creates a horcrux. This requires a sacrifice of the same species to invoke. I am assuming that _that _is what this object is."

After a pause, Harry asked curiously, "What's the other branch?"

"Something of a rebirth. It is called a Burning, and occurs when a creature ties their soul to their soul's death to create a loop. It has only ever been done successfully by a handful of species. The whole theory is based off the life cycle of a phoenix. Hence, the title of 'Burning.'"

"And do you think Voldemort tried something like that?" Harry asked. Ron flinched at Harry's casual use of the taboo name.

Alex looked at the object in his hands, "...Possibly, but he would have failed if it were after he created this. You need a complete soul to create a loop."

"Can the tiara be destroyed?" asked Harry, green eyes wide with the intensity of the question .

"Firstly, this is a diadem, not a tiara. Secondly, yes, this horcrux could easily be destroyed with any number of things. But I would like to save the object itself. It is a rather powerful and impressive bit of spellwork, and not something to be brushed aside. It will still be far easier to destroy this horcrux without damaging the vessel then it will be to destroy your horcrux... without injury to _you_" Alex said to Harry. The statements was so casually delivered that it took the three boys a moment to process what Alex was insinuating.

Ron snapped out of his surprise the fastest, insisting to the vampire, "You can't be serious."

Alex looked genuinely surprised at the shock from the three boys. He locked eyes with Harry, asking softly, "You didn't know?"

When Harry shook his head, Alex seemed to settle down into his chair. His shoulders slumped a little. "Well, I suppose it isn't the sort of thing one would discuss over dinner. Still, it is strange no one mentioned the fact that a very small shard of a mad man's soul is trapped inside your skull."

"But it can be removed, r-right?" Harry asked a bit panicked, "I don't want Voldemort in my head."

"Too right," Alex agreed with a solemn nod. "I will look into it. I should have a proper plan by summer. In the meantime, I will work on this horcrux, and perhaps look into if there are any _other_ horcruxes out there. I don't particularly want Vile-fort back in the picture. He caused _quite _the upheaval in the Vampire community. I thought old Dracula was going to go deal with it himself, given the number of newly turned vampires that flocked to the madman like pigeons to salted bread crumbs."

"You know Count Dracula?" Ron asked in shock.

Alex nodded, "We've met a few times. His Sire and I were close a few centuries back. Although Britain once fell under the roll of a very powerful Coven, it has slowly been weakening. A good number of old, even ancient vampires from there have been killed off by witches and wizards. That, or left for greener pastures. It has left a bit of a power gap. Things have been rather turbulent for a few centuries now. Silly, Villy-Mart hardly helped matters. Ancients don't normally bother to move into a new territory unless they intend to control it. Dracula attempting to deal with the growing issue in Britain would have been a very huge power shift. Particularly since Dracula is still considered an Old vampire, not an Ancient one.

"So Dracula would have been worse?" Ron asked.

"Much. Luckily for all involved, a very young Harry solved the problem."

Harry didn't seem terribly happy to have been the human scapegoat for the magical world.

Sensing the discomfort, Octavius rose and indicated for the three teens to do so as well. "I suppose you'd all best be getting back to Hogwarts. It is already well past curfew."

The three boys all looked utterly horrified at this realization.

"I will take Potter and Nick. If you would bring your …. relative along with you."

"Great Nephew" Octavius offered happily.

Alex gripped both Harry and Nick's shoulder and popped them back through several counties.

Just like that, the trio arrived just outside the Hogwarts gates.

Ron and his Uncle appeared just behind.

"My cloak!" Harry exclaimed as the trio made their way back to the school.

Harry looked at Ron hopefully, but Ron shook his head. Nick debated not mentioning that he had given it to Alex, but his sense of duty to his only parselmouth friend at school won out.

"I gave it to Alex. He has been looking for it for a long time. Someone stole it from him a long time ago." Alex tried to explain.

Harry looked back at the two Vampires uneasily. He seemed to be debating with himself over the cloak. "It was... my father's" Harry told Alex, head hanging.

Alex raised an eyebrow. Nick doubted Alex would ever let go of the cloak again, now that it was family in his hands again.

Much to his great shock, Alex stepped forward with said cloak in one pale, outstretched hand. "I will return this to you, under two conditions."

Harry looked at the vampire apprehensively, eyeing the cloak in front of him

"The first is that when I require it again, you will give it to me without any questions or complaints."

Harry seemed willing enough to accept this offer.

"The second... is that you join my Coven."

This Harry did not look like he would accept this condition in the least. Seeing where his friend's thoughts were going, Nick cut in hastily, "He doesn't mean to change you into a vampire. It is a bit like becoming family. Like a blood adoption. I'm part of Alex's Coven, but I'm still a wizard."

"It means that I and the rest of the Coven are obligated to protect you- just as you are to protect us." Alex smirked, adding, "I can assure you, you are far more likely to get assistance than to give it."

"You'd be brothers?" Ron asked, motioning between Nick and Harry.

Nick shrugged, "In a way."

"In about the same way that Nick and I are brothers" Octavius explained.

Ron seemed to think this was great. "You'd be my great uncle's brother." Ron's face lit up, "You'd be my great Uncle!"

Nick nodded, happy to play along. "So would I."

Ron and Nick met each other's gaze with gleeful grins, "You would be the great Uncle of Fred and George."

"They would _have _to listen to me!" Nick snickered, a little too excited.

Harry seemed caught up in the excitement. But when he looked back at the outstretched cloak he sobered. "I … can I think about it?"

Alex seemed to deliberate. But then he nodded once. "Very well, and in the meantime you may keep the cloak. But you will need to return it at the end of summer if you choose to refuse my offer," Alex explained.

Ron turned to his great uncle, "Will you visit at all this summer?"

Octavius smiled just slightly, but sadness played in his eyes. "I can't imagine I will be welcomed." Ron opened his mouth to disagree but Octavius cut him off, "In any case, I will probably move close to Hogsmeade as there will quite possibly be two Coven members here. I would hate to leave you in the hands of the ever-dependent Faer and the quick-to-action Mao". Octavius left no room for doubt about how he really felt about Faer and Mao's ability to defend Nick, and potentially Harry. "If you have questions about the Coven, you are welcome to ask," Octavius said to Harry.

The group gave their final goodbyes. The vampires waited until the boys were safely in the castle before popping back to their own, comfortable home in Norway.

Under the relative safety of the invisibility cloak, the small group made their way first to the Ravenclaw tower, then back to the Gryffindor tower.

Nick came into the common room around one o'clock to find it about as busy as it ever was. One of the seventh years had even set up a little food station for people to get snacks.

With a yawn, Nick grabbed himself a small plate, and made his way up to his bed.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"It was sheer, dumb luck that we weren't caught" Ron laughed as Nick and Harry retold their adventure of the night before.

"What happened when the man grabbed you? Where did he take you?" one of the twins asked.

Nick was equally as curious as the twins. The night before, Harry hadn't had the chance to fill him in on what had happened.

"I wasn't there long. One minute I'm standing on the Hogsmeade path, and the next," Harry grinned dramattically, "I'm in some torn down, old, abandoned building. I ducked down as soon as we landed-"

Ron snorted disbelievingly, giving Nick the impression that Harry might not have duck so much as fallen ass over tea kettle.

"-Which was just as well, because the creepy old guy started to throw curses at me as soon as we landed. I was a little disappointed to think that I might die at the hands of a homeless geezer after defeating a Troll, a labrinth and Voldamort last year, but then this shadow just rose up out of the floorboard. I thought it was a cheep fog machine at first-"

Herminonie grinned but the Weaslys looked collectiviely confused. Nick was fairly sure he could figure out what a Fog machine wass based on the name, but he had never actually seen one before.

"- and all of the sudden the homeless nutter is panicking and screaming about vampires. The shadows started to form into this tall, dark -"

"And handsome," one of the twins butted in cheekily.

"Er well, whatever. Handsome? Anyways this vampire guy shows up and he doesn't even cast a spell. The crazy guy just bloody sprints straight out of the building, Screeeming the whole way. Anyway, then the tall, dark guy comes over to me and tells me he's Nick's Uncle- and also a vampire." The twins look at Harry in awe. A real vampire? "'Old as Hogwarts,' he said. Then he just sort of grabbed me and suddenly, supprise, we were in Norway."

"I still can't believe you went to Norway without us" Fred whined.

"Icky Nicky, next time take _us_" George and Fred sang.

Nick Laughed, "It is a Vampire Cover, you'd be bitten all the time."

"They wouldn't drain us though right?" Fred asked eagerly.

"They're talking about eating you" Ron said incredulously.

Nick laughed outright, "Vampires don't _eat_ wizards, they just … nibble at you."

"Nibble!" Ron spluttered as he grimaced, looking at Harry and the twins for some sort of support, but the others appeared to have warmed to the idea. Well, that, or they enjoyed harassing Ron very, very much. Most likely the latter.

"I thought you liked Octavius?" Nick asked Ron.

Ron shrugged, "His family, it's different."

Nick raised an eyebrow at the boy. It was doubtful that Octavius would see it that way.

"Speaking of Great Uncle Octavius, did he say how to contact him?" Fred asked his younger brother.

Ron shrugged, "Owl I guess." In search of confirmation, the group looked at Nick, who nodded. What did they think they needed to do, cast a fancy dark curse. Honestly! Wizards.

The twins left shortly after, mostly likely off to pen a letter to their estranged great uncle. Ron and Harry headed back to the gryffindor tower to play exploding snaps in their common room.

Nick took the opportunity to spend the day in the slytherin library, studying old texts. He ended up becoming so concentrated on the books in the library that he didn't leave until quarter to midnight, on Christmas Eve.

(page break)

Nick woke up only a few hours after going to bed. Something was jumping on his bed.

The thing, whatever it was, was hopping up and down on the mattress like a too-eager puppy dog, disturbing Nick from his sleep. He cracked his eyes open and turned over, to see Baggy the house elf on the end of his bed.

"Master Grant is telling me to wake Master Nick, sir." Baggy explained. His floppy ears looked a bit like bat wings each time the house elf jumped.

"Thank you for waking me up Baggy," said Nick, trying to stifle a yawn.

"You is welcome sir. Happy Christmas!" And with an obnoxiously loud _pop! _the elf was gone.

Nick haziy rolled out of bed and meandered his way down to the common room.

Grant Page was already sitting by the huge, white christmas tree. Four large piles of colorfully wrapped presents waited around the base of the tree.

"Hagrid the groundskeeper found this tree, and Professor Flitwick asked to have it brought up. I like it _much _better than the usual green trees we get."

"It's called a Unicorn tree. When a Unicorn puts some of its magic, intentionally or not, into the soil where a pine sapling is growing, the pine becomes a Unicorn Tree. The sap has intense healing properties..." He droned on. The two seventh years who were staying at school over Christmas wandered into the common room and collapsed into the chairs surrounded by their presents. Nick looked to the free seat and took his place there.

The seventh years looked as though they wanted to go into an in depth discussion of their own on Unicorn tree sap- but Nick hastily picked up his first present and began unwrapping it, hardly wishing to join the conversation. The other Ravenclaws seemed to clue in and gladly proceeded to unwrap their own presents.

Mostly Nick's aunts, uncles and cousins had sent him parselscript books and food from whichever country they were currently in. Nick happily munched away on the Malva Pudding as he carefully packed away the rest of the goodies. The books were packed away as soon as they were opened, lest the other three Ravenclaws notice them and ask to take a look.

A few members of Alex's Coven sent presents as well, which wasn't entirely out of the norm. Most people in Alex's coven were at least one hundred years old if not older, so annual traditions like Christmas tended to only be observed every five or so years.

Younger members tended to send things more frequently. Octavius sent a knit toque every year without fail. Normally, it was in the family crest colours of silver and green, but this year it was specially knit with the Ravenclaw blue and bronze.

Alex had sent a selection of books in English. Nick put them to the side for half a second to read Alex's card. When he looked back up, Grant and the seventh years were flipping through the books.

"Oi! You could ask, you know" Nick snapped indignantly.

The two seventh years looked sincerely apologetic, but Grant merely waved Nick off.

"At least put them back when you're done," Nick grumbled..

One of the seventh years motioned to the book he was holding, and asked, "Nick who gave this to you?"

"My uncle," Nick answered a little uneasily. The seventh year was holding the book at arm's length like it might grow teeth and eat him, which wasn't exactly Ravenclaw-ish.

The other seventh year and Grant took turns trying to read the title, which they had no idea was upside down. Once they figured out their mistake, they turned the book around, and their expressions grew more puzzled. "This book is about breaking dark magic curses," Grant said with a bewildered expression. There was nothing wrong with breaking a dark curse, after all.

The two seventh years noted the confusion. The one holding the book tossed the volume back to Nick and launched into an explanation.

"This book has been on the banned list for years. The author explains both how to do the curse, and then how to break it. There are some really _dark _curses in there. You might want to hand it over to professor Snape for the semester, just in case."

"Snape?" Nick wondered aloud. Wouldn't their head of house make more sense?

The seventh years smirked, "Professor Flitwick would hand the book over to the ministry in a heartbeat. Snape will give it back to you before summer, trust us. He might snap and snarl about nosy Ravenclaws reading things they ought to let die with time, but he _will _give the book back."

"Snape it is," Nick nodded. He briefly debated just keeping the book hidden in his trunk, but it wasn't as if Nick had the time or inclination to read yet more English books. There were enough other hidden secrets that could get him sent to prison without adding another.

Nick went back to opening presents. He was a bit surprised when he started noticing presents from people outside of his family and his Coven. Marcus, Eddie and Hugo had all sent Nick books in the classic Ravenclaw style. Nick felt a little bad for not sending anything in return.

Before unwrapping anything else, he made a quick dash up to his room. In haste, he opened his potions chest and wrapped up a potion bottle for each person from Hogwarts who had sent him a present, as well as one potion for Baggy the house elf.

"Baggy!" Nick called.

In an instant, the house elf popped into Nick's room, looking like an excited puppy.

"Master Nick is calling Baggy, sir?"

Nick gently handed the elf a rack of wrapped potions, saying "Could you please take them to my friends? Their names are on the tags."

The house elf grinned even wider. "Baggy is being like one of Saint Nicholas's elves! I is doing this right now." The house elf vanished with a sound more like jingling bells than the usual popped balloon.

The dorm room was a lot less cheerful with the house elf gone, so Nick headed back downstairs to his own pile of presents that had yet to be unwrapped.

Grant and the two seventh years were all skimming through books they had gotten as gifts, while the other half of their presents remained unwrapped. A slight jingling of bells was all that announced the sudden appearance of a small creature on Grant's gift pile, but no one but Nick noticed.

Once Nick started opening presents again the three other Ravenclaws all put their books down and went about opening presents.

Nick opened a small box of homemade joke and prank supplies from the twins.

Luna had sent a piece of driftwood that had been carved into an intricate snake. Two small, polished rocks were set into the wood as the eyes. Nick turned the carving over a few times. It reminded him of his time spent on Vancouver Island, Canada, just last year.

After a moment of inspection he set it aside, and proceeded to pick up a present wrapped in Ravenclaw colours. It seemed that both Grant and the two seventh years had identically-wrapped presents. Nick turned the package over, but there was no name on it, save for his own.

"Professor Flitwick sends a book to all the Ravenclaws. Same one for everyone," said one of the seventh years. "Some years it's great for the first years, some years it's more suited for the seventh years."

"But it _is _always a great read," another seventh year chimed in.

Grant and the other seventh year pulled out their identical packages, and the four opened them at the same time, eager to see what the professor's pick had been this year. The cover read, _Twelve Uses of Dragon's Blood_, by Albus Dumbledore. The three other Ravenclaws looked absolutely elated.

"How did Professor Flitwick even get his hands on this? I heard that Headmaster Dumbledore wrote the book, but it was never actually published," claimed one of the Seventh years.

Grant smirked, "I can imagine all Flitwick had to do was ask. They do know each other, after all."

The seventh years looked less than impressed with Grant's remark, but ignored it in favor of starting their new book.

Nick turned back to his own presents. Mao had sent him a nice variety of potion ingredients from China. Alex, on the other hand, had sent over potion ingredients from Norway, as well as a small ring with a note saying it was a portkey to the Canadian estate on Salt Spring Island, where Alex would be for the remainder of the semester. The password was "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", Nick hadn't the faintest idea why Alex picked something so peculiar but at least it was obscure enough he wouldn't risk saying it in everyday speech.

Faer sent a bottle of everlasting ink made from Nightmare barriers from Norway. The ink, while black in appearance by day, shone a deep blue during the dark of night. Faer also sent a quill made from one of his own feathers. Nick was fairly certain that the combination of the quill and ink was worth more than the price of a small house in Hogsmeade. But knowing Faer, the ice phoenix had probably seen it as a semi-decent present that meant not having to venture into the market around Christmas time. Lazy git.

A couple of Slytherins had sent along books and candies, probably in an effort to keep in Nick's good books so he would continue to tutor them in the practical part of potions.

A Hufflepuff boy by the name of Justin Finch-Fletchley had sent Nick a Thank-you-for-unpetrifying-me-also-Happy-Christmas present. It was a small box of Egyptian Papyrus. The box indicated that it was muggle-made, but it looked better quality than any magical Papyrus Nick had ever bought.

"Got friends in every house, eh? Bit rare that is, what with house rivalries and all. Though I suppose you're only third year. By the time you're a fifth year, you probably won't even talk to them anymore," one of the Seventh years promised.

Nick nodded in agreement. He didn't actually know the Finch-Fletchley kid from Hufflepuff, and the Slytherins only sent him presents because he tutored them. Not to mention the fact that Nick was desperately hoping Alex could reconsider his position on schooling _long _before Nick reached fifth year.

Granted, Nick _had _learned quite a few Latin spells and was loads better at speaking, reading and writing English but formal schooling wasn't nearly as exciting. Nor did it offer as many practical lessons as traveling with a Coven around the world.

"Finished?" Grant asked. Nick looked up from his gifts and nodded. "Let's head to breakfast then. Thanks a ton for the bottle of Felix Felicis by the way! It must have cost a fortune. Where did you get it?"

"Is that the girl you are dating?" Nick asked as they passed a group of Gryffindors. Grant's face lit up and he said a hasty goodbye to Nick, just before rushing to meet up with his new girlfriend. Nick had no intention of telling anyone he could brew - and _had _brewed - Felix Felicis on his own. It was supposed to be registered with the Ministry anytime someone brewed a batch, strictly speaking. Personally, Nick paid more attention to Coven laws then Magic laws set by the Ministry. Alex only ever asked that a tenth be sent to him with every batch, and Nick was happy to comply. Particularly since the potion was sent with anyone in dangerous territory as a method of defense. Very handy, old Felix was.

Nick spent Christmas morning herded around by the Weasleys. He got a chance to meet the infamous Percy Weasley, who wasn't nearly as bad as the twins had let on. Nick actually had a pleasant conversation about Christmas tradition between countries and species, while the twins, Ron and Harry created two massive snow forts.

Nick and Percy had intended to avoid joining the snow fight, but a few Hufflepuffs somehow managed to drag Percy over to the twins' side while Grant and the two seventh years Ravenclaws dragged Nick over to Ron and Harry's side.

Near mayhem broke out when a small group of Slytherins stumbled upon the fight and nearly got caught in the crossfire of a dozen or so enchanted snowballs. Luckily, Nick recognized two of them from his potions tutoring and dragged them over to his side.

"Oh no, I am not fighting _with_ a bunch of sneaky Slytherins!" Ron squawked in outrage.

Harry seemed torn between agreeing with his friend and accepting the added help, regardless of house rivalry.

Thankfully, Grant stepped in just in time. "Lookit, little lion cub, a little sneakiness is _exactly _what he need to cream those soft-hearted Hufflepuffs. You two," Grant motioned to two of the fifth year slytherins, "See if you can organize an attack from the back while our heroic Gryffindors go attack head on. I'll see about setting up some fancy spellwork to collapse their outer wall. Nick, you try to collapse the tower that Fred and George are standing on" he instructed.

Nick moved to one of the lower towers of their snow castle to get a better aim at who he presumed to be George. Fred, however, was nowhere to be seen, which greatly concerned Nick.

Sure enough, halfway through the grand attack organised by Grant, the support underneath Ron and Harry's snow castle gave way beneath them, seemingly out of the blue.

Nick panicked when a cascade of snow buried him. He began to shiver uncontrollably as the snow settled around him. The need to escape looped through his thoughts, but the weight of the snow prevented Nick from moving his hand to cast a Latin levitation spell and every time he opened his mouth, more snow fell in. He gulped in the half-melted frost as his teeth started to chatter, and soon the rest of him was shaking uncontrollably. He was too cold to cast a spell in Parseltongue, much less Latin. Nick desperately tried digging at the snow, but more of it simply fell down on top of him.

He moved his left arm enough that within moments, enough snow had been moved that he could see a piece of the sky above him. It was still to small to get out though and the snow above was crushing down on him, freezing his bones and brain. Despriatly, Nick tried to focus on his core. He thought of the feelings of scales covering his skin; he felt his body tempature plummet further. His newly turned reptillain blood unaccustumed to the freezing cold.

Nick didn't bother to check if he had done this part of the transformation correctly, he just barrelled on. Next, he focused on his arms, pressing them into his body murging and shrinking him self as his very structure began to change. It might have been an agganizing process if Nick wasn't already too froozen to feel his own tongue.

When he opened his eyes, the world was diffferent: Larger and in less colour than Nick recalled it being when he was human. He didn't dwell on it though. As fast as he could manage, which was pretty sluggish at this point, the half frozzen snake slither up into the cold air.

A very panicked looking Fred and George were madly digging through the snow, calling his name, unaware of what had taken place.

Nick looked around a bit through his reptile's eyes. Unfortunately, several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were still around. He couldn't even transform back.

"_Potter!_" Nick hissed, as loud as he could. A mop of black hair appeared from behind a bank of snow.

Ron looked startled for a minute, but as soon as he saw that Harry was calm, he relaxed, too. But he was also dubious as he stared at the snake.

"What's it saying?" he muttered, "Can it find the Ravenclaw guy?".

"_He doesn't even know my name?"_ Nick asked Harry in pure disbelief.

"_Nick?"_ Harry asked in surprise. Nick nodded, "_How did you turn into a snake? Also... you called Hermione 'Bushy.'"_

"_This is my Animagus form. Although strictly speaking I'm not supposed to have an animagus form. But nevermind that. Blast a little deeper into the snowbank, would you?"_ Nick instructed. Ron looked between the snake and Harry in confusion, but Harry ignored him and dutifully sent two more blasting hexes into the snow, careful to avoid hitting the snake. Nick slithered out. Thinking only of his human form now, Nick managed to flawlessly and gracefully turn back into a human, and retrieved his wand all in one motion.

"Bloody hell, that was _brilliant," exclaimed Ron._ "You're like Mcgonagall!"

Nick's eyebrow twitched and he tried to hide a smirk.

"Come on, the twins are still searching for you" Harry motioned to the frantic Fred and George, who were still digging in the snow and desperately calling his name.

"Don't tell anyone" Nick told Ron severely, before dashing off to scare the living daylight out of the twins.

(page break here)

After the snowball fight, the the whole group headed to their respective dorms to shower and change.

Christmas dinner in the Great Hall was, in a word, spectacular.

The Snowball fight hadn't destroyed old house rivalries, but it _had _taken a few stones out of the otherwise impenetrable wall between the houses. Quidditch games featuring players from all four houses on either team became a usual afternoon activity. Most evenings were spent in the Slytherin library with the twins, Ron, and Harry, who only made a passing attempt at studying.

Late evenings, when curfew was supposed to be in effect, Nick found himself in basically any common room but his own. Cho often dragged Nick to the Hufflepuff common room for a huge game of exploding snaps with the third year Hufflepuffs. If Nick felt like a slightly more relaxed evening, he ducked away down to the dungeons. Any passing slytherin seemed happy enough to let Nick into the Slytherin common room. Grant pointed out that this sort of thing was pretty much unheard off. Even people dating Slytherins could only see the common rooms if they had an escort. On more than one occasion, though, Nick found himself to be the last person sitting by the fire.

(Page Break)

A few nights before the beginning of the next term, Nick had let the Twins drag him up to the Gryffindor common room. There, Lee Jordan had managed to set up a huge party, as far as dorm standards went. Grant was dancing with his girlfriend on the small stage set up for just that purpose. He was likely very good at classical dancing, but Nick had to wince at the Ravenclaws' attempts at modern dance. Still, Grant and his girlfriend looked happy enough.

The twins dragged Nick over to an enormous table laden with bottles and variously-sized potion vials, where two students were taking shots of what was either alcohol or a mystery potion. First person to accidentally drink one of the potions was out, and the next person stepped up to the table to face off.

Unfortunately for poor Nick, he was pushed up to the table to face off against one very inebriated Lee Jordan. Being an exceptional potions student, Nick managed several rounds, before he became _so _drunk that he honestly didn't remember why he was knocking back overflowing vials in the first place.

In a moment of drunken confusion, he ended up accidentally downing a hair raising potion. Someone pulled him from the table over to the dance floor. Nick looked back just in time to see a very intoxicated Slytherin first year being pushed up to take his spot at the potion/alcohol table. This party was getting out of hand.

Nick wasn't given the time to figure out _why _it bothered him that a little first year was being pressured to drink so much. Just then, someone was pulling him up onto the packed dancing stage.

There was a body grinding behind him. Vaguely, Nick was aware of people as they rudely grabbed and pinched him all while the music blared over a constant chatter of drunken students. Sober, Nick might have been far too uncomfortable to dance like a drunken, lewd sailor, but with more alcohol than blood in his system, he was happy to do pretty much whatever someone asked him to do.

By the time the party started to wind down, it was far too late to be stumbling through the corridors, so anyone not in Gryffindor found somewhere comfortable to curl up in the common room and… well, sleep off their impending hangovers.

An inebriated Ron tried to force the semi-conscious first year slytherin out the portrait hole, but his younger sister was giving him hell for even suggesting such a thing. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Nick recognized that the youngest Weasley hadn't been drinking, as was evident from her clearly controlled actions. She moved the first year Slytherin back over to one of the arm chairs and tucked him in like a doting mother.

Nick looked around the room for his own chair to sleep in, but someone pulled him towards the dorms. Nick wasn't that aware of what was going on, but for some reason it felt good and he wanted it to continue.

He was vaguely aware that he was on a bed, although his vision was far beyond fuzzy by this point and his head was pounding, with curtain pulled around himself. Someone else was on top of him, grinding their hips together. Lips were _everywhere _and neither he nor the other person was wearing a shirt. Odd. He didn't remember removing his shirt. They both had pants on though, and this seemed to bother Nick. He wanted to feel the other person more, but he was also dog-tired and it was hard to stay awake long enough to voice his objections to the clothing separation.

( page break here)

When Nick woke up next, he found himself curled in bed, moderately tangled with another set of of semi-naked limbs that appeared to belong to Gryffindor's quidditch captain - Oliver Wood.

Discoloured patches - hickeys, Nick realized - covered both his and Oliver's chests. Nick tried to process what had happened the night before, even though the blood rushing through his head made him want to pass out as he slowly untangled himself from the passed out Quidditch captain.

Nick's only knowledge of Oliver Wood was his name, his status as the Gryffindor quidditch captain, and the fact that he was in sixth year, thereby three full years older than Nick. Nick was fairly certain that nothing more than a bit of snogging had happened since both boys still had their pants on, thank heaven, but it still felt a little weird to know he'd made out with someone three years his senior.

Oliver was more filled out, his muscles were more toned. At least he was pretty damn attractive. Whereas Nick had a slightly angular baby-face. Oliver had a well-toned jawline going for him with a small amount of hair growing in all the right places. Their age difference was very apparent in Nick's opinion, as he studied the older boy within such a close proximity.

"Oh hell no…" someone murmured from just beside the bed, "There is fraternising with the enemy, and there is _fraternising_ with the _enemy._" Nick jumped about a foot from where he sat and almost entirely collided back into Oliver, smashing his head against the quidditch captain's shoulder.

"Fuck off Grant," Oliver muttered into his pillow, too tired - or too hungover - to give a damn about the situation.

Nick looked up at a very mad, and clearly not _nearly _as hungover Grant Page. The fifth year looked like he might at any moment light the very bed Nick lay on, on fire. With Nick still in it. The boy was livid.

"Why the _hell_, Oliver, were you trying to fuck a _third year?_" he hissed, house tensions growing by the second. "That's pathetic even for _you_" he sneered at the semi-conscious Gryffindor.

Grant's last comment, however, seemed to snap Oliver out of his hungover haze. Oliver flipped over and looked up at an equally startled Nick who was still half-lying on his chest and struggling to sit up through the mess of sheets.

"Nick?" he gaped, running a panicked hand through his hair before asking, "What …. er… we didn't _Do_ anything last night... did we?" His tone of voice hinted without being said aloud, _Please tell me nothing happened._

Nick looked down at their still clothed lower halves and glanced sheepishly at Oliver, answering truthfully, "Don't think so." Oliver breathed out with relief.

The whole situation would have been ten times less awkward behind curtains and silencing charms, but a growling Grant still hung over the pair like an angry storm cloud, waiting to thunder.

"Considering how _loud _you two were, you would've thought…"

Nick cursed in seven different ways to hell and back. How had both of them forgotten silencing charms? Granted, Nick remembered being far too drunk to figure out how to get his own pants off, but still. Ravenclaws shouldn't be _that _stupid. The very thought of other people hearing whatever drunken debauchery they'd been up to had Nick turning the same colour as the crimson bed curtains.

"Nick's practically a kid, you _sick bastard," _Grant spat back at the sixth-year Gryffindor_._ "I always knew your type were sick, but this is crossing a line. Beyond crossing a line." Grant's glare turned to the very confused and panicked Oliver.

Nick slowly caught up to Grant's accusation. He held up a hand to interrupt Grant's onslaught of insults. "Wh- Do Europeans even hate gays? Bloody hell, is there anyone you _do_ like?" Nick looked up at Grant with seemingly-honest curiosity, but Grant only looked angrier.

"Look here, first of all, everyone was drunk out of their minds last night, shit happens. Hate to break it to you. Second, Oliver was possible more drunk than I was, I mean, look at him. Third, I was definitely already gay, so it's not like he suddenly 'turned me gay' last night with some sloppy drunk make out session." Oliver cringed, but Nick couldn't care less "Fourth, _when _and with _whom _I choose to have sex is absolutely and unconditionally, none of your fucking business."

"Nick, you're still just thirteen-" Grant was interrupted by Nick's hungover lecture, and decided to give it up and listen.

"And Fifth and _finally_, for someone so disgusted by pureblood prejudices, you are often the quickest to hate anything or anyone different from you."

Grant stood with owl eyes boring down at Nick. Taking a moment to arrange his thoughts, he finally spoke. "I … that was the most I have heard you speak... _ever_. If you took every word you have spoken to me or in my presence this whole year and combined it, I'm still fairly sure it'd be fewer words than you just spoke."

Nick scowled back at Grant. Meanwhile, Oliver still looked slightly panicked and confused, but the anger in Grant had dissipated to some degree and the whole room seemed calmer for it.

"You even swore …" Grant looked more than a little impressed. Perhaps this kid was all right. "Alright, I won't mention it again to you or to anyone else, but I don't want you to be parading it around either. That shit weirds me out." Grant nodded to himself like this was a fair deal.

The panic left the room, too. Nick would have liked to curse the two of them for thinking that was fair. Grant was a bloody wanker, he was doing no favors by pretending he was going to protect their 'secret'. Nick would have said as much if Oliver liked a limp noodle, but clearly Oliver _did _consider it a secret. It was only right to honor that.

Nick watched Grant strut from the room, and left the otherwise empty dorm to Oliver and Nick.

Nick wanted to talk to Oliver about the night before. Obviously, Oliver considered Nick much too young, which he was, in all fairness, but there was a chance Oliver knew other gay students. It would have been nice to be able to at least meet a few of them, maybe mess around a little, or at the very least talk. Nick wasn't really sure how to start that kind of conversation though, particularly since Oliver was so clearly uncomfortable with other people knowing his sexual preference.

"So…. you ah, _hissed _a lot last night." Oliver mentioned quietly.

Nick looked back at Oliver in surprise. "In the common room?" he interrogated, horrified at what that might mean. This was _not _where he wanted the conversation going. Being a parselmouth who was also gay and biologically related to the feared and revered Salazar Slytherin, as well as the batshit crazy Lord Voldemort, was probably a mixed crime punishable by death in Wizarding Britain. That was, if Nick was judging everyone's reactions correctly.

Thankfully, Oliver shook his head, "Just when we... were, uh," Oliver cleared his throat awkwardly, "well, ya know".

"Snogging?" Nick supplied with a smirk. Oliver turned a few shades brighter. "I would prefer if that um, didn't get around." Nick found his shirt on the ground and slowly made to get dressed.

Oliver opened and closed his mouth, half-formed words spilling out. Finally he paused long enough to form a coherent sentence, "You _are _actually a gay parseltongue."

"Gay parsel_mouth_. Parseltongue is the language, speakers are called parselmouths. But anyways, yeah, I am."

Oliver sat in unadulterated shock while he watched as Nick finished getting dressed.

"Between you and me, I am also related to the crazy mass murderer Lord Voldemort. Pity, he _is _technically head of the family, otherwise he would have been blasted from the tree ages ago." Nick watched in amusement as Oliver seemed to grow impossibly more shocked, and the colour in his face went from stunning scarlet to pasty white. Nick flinched away when he saw fear and, dare he spot it, anger mix together in Oliver's eyes. "Look, I'm just trying to improve my English. That's the only reason I'm here. I have no problems being a gay parselmouth or a potions tutor or an over-partying third year. I only hide these things because everyone in magical Britain seems to be looking for a reason to lynch each other."

Oliver looked ready to defend his community - but something made him pause and sit back. "Is that how your friend unpetrified the others?" he murmured curiously. "Is that why Dumbledore switched defence teachers halfway through the year?" Oliver looked more at the wall above Nick's head than at Nick. "He's _never _done that before."

"Yes, Shaman Mao used Parselmagic, magic done in Parseltongue, to unpetrify the others. Dumbledore fired Lockhart after he found some... _unsavory _characteristics…"

"What, like his complete incompetence?" Oliver suggested with a smirk.

Nick smiled half-heartedly, "No, much worse I'm afraid. Mao stayed to deal with the monster though. It's complicated, but it is being dealt with." Nick tried to look reassuring, but Oliver refused to even meet Nick's eyes. His efforts were in vain.

"You won't tell, will you? About any of last night?" Nick tried to meet Oliver's eyes, but the other boy's were unusually focused on his shirt buttons all of the sudden.

"I wont make an unconditional vow or anything, but obviously I don't want people finding out either. So, yeah, 'course I won't say anything."

Nick winced at Oliver's words. It might have hurt a little less if Oliver had been referring to the age gap between the two, but he was clearly referring to the sexual orientation part. Maybe the whole thing about being a parselmouth too, if he was being really honest with himself.

"Thanks... I guess," Nick muttered as he made his way out of the dorm and down to the common room.

Nick hadn't actually looked at a clock when Grant woke him up, but it was obviously still very early, seeing as everyone was still passed out in the common room. Nick spotted the slytherin first year from the night before. Not trusting a room full of older and sometimes cruel Gryffindors, Nick gently woke the kid and pulled him down to the Great hall with him.

The hall was empty, save for a few professors who all looked equally worse for wear, just as Nick and the first year were.

It occurred to Nick how odd it was that a party as out of control as the one last night hadn't been discovered but clearly, the professors had had an equally out of hand party of their own.

The first year remained smugly oblivious to the professors' hungover states when the two left the hall again. The young kid even bragged at length about how stealthy the two of them must be to not be discovered. Nick didn't bother correcting the kid when they finally went their own ways.

Nick went down to the Parseltongue library for some comforting surroundings and curled up on one of the newly repaired chairs to sleep. At some point Baggy appeared to give Nick some sort of hangover potion, which proved extremely helpful, but the rest of the day Nick spent keeping to himself.

Oliver didn't really _ignore _Nick, since they'd almost never crossed paths before the party. Oliver simply made absolutely certain that they continue to almost never see each other, much less interact. Personally, Nick found the look of fear in Oliver's eyes far more offensive than the backpedaling he did anytime he spotted Nick.

No one seemed to notice, or if they did, they never mentioned it.

Then Grant made a sudden switch to hanging out with Hufflepuffs, which he had previously never done. He rarely was in the Ravenclaw common room, and was absolutely never left in a room alone with Nick. To be fair to Grant, Nick spent just as much effort avoiding Grant as he did him. Deep down, although Nick would never admit it to himself, he hated Grant these days.

Nick's inside burned with indignant rage anytime he saw the older Ravenclaw. He convinced himself that it was nerves or bad food, or simply a reaction to Grant's own uneasiness, but if Nick were honest with himself, he would find that Grant had taken up residence beside Voldemort on his list of Europeans he truly despised.

The twins and Lee, Ron and Harry were all happy enough to distract Nick though. The twins and Lee stayed up late into the night with Nick plotting pranks for certain people, as well as the for whole school.

For some unknown reason the twins seemed happy enough when Nick suggested both Oliver and Grant as potential victims. Lee seemed particularly happy to prank Oliver, and Nick thought better of asking, although he did wonder if perhaps the two had had some sort of relationship that ended abruptly. Lee did seem to talk about Oliver more passionately than he did about any of the Slytherins he suggested.

Harry and Ron were happy enough to spend the afternoons of the remaining days before term wandering outside and practicing Nick's English spelling and reading.

Once, Faer joined them for a walk out in the snow. That was a welcome activity. Ron was lamenting his unfinished History essay when Faer offered to help make it more exciting. By this, he meant build giant ice sculptures, which the ice phoenix then brought to life to reenact famous scenes in the goblin wars.

All things considered, the Winter holidays ended well enough.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

By the time term started, Nick had almost forgotten that Lockhart was gone and Mao was taking his place. That was, until he walked into what _appeared _to be an exact replica of Mao's lower garden back in China, rather than the usual dreary looking defense classroom, a small river ran down the center of the room and ended in a tiny fish pond.

The class was abuzz as everyone wondered into the classroom. Marcus dragged Nick over to a set of plush blue pillows laid out on the grass to sit on. Eddie and Hugo found themselves brown patterned pillows under a Cherry tree by the side wall.

The whole class, minus Nick, was positively ecstatic for the change in class. Nick was not fooled though. He knew perfectly well the level of work Professor Mao would require, and it would be nothing short of hell. Even Professor Mcgonagall's class would be laughably easy comparatively.

The class started much the same way most classes started in September. Professor Mao talked at length of what they should expect this term for work, and of course, what was expected in terms of classroom behaviour and routines. Once expectations were set, Mao introduced everyone to meditation, which every future DADA class would begin with. The class was first taught how to meditate, then how to create a Mindscape where students could go to when meditating.

"Focus on your breath," Mao's voice flickered through the room, blending with the river that ran through the center of the room. Like a melody, the phrase was repeated as the class closed their eyes and concentrated. Well, most concentrated, a few quickly began to nod off.

A movement to Nick's right tugged him out of his meditation. Marcus was slumped onto his side, he eyes darting around the room bewilderedly. Nick tried not to snort in laughter as Marcus righted himself and turned his attention back to Professor Mao, "Focus on your chest as your breath in, feel the air enter your lungs. Let it say for a moment. Release."

The class slowly drifted into peaceful mediation. "Leave your breath now and enter your mind. Find the expanse of your mind, is it white? black? Grey? Focus on what you see." Nick immediately knew what was going on, Mao was teaching them about Mindscapes.

Mao had taught Nick how to meditate when Nick was very young. In fact, it was even before his parents died when he first started learning meditation.

"Create an edge to your mind. Bring the never ending ness into a marble. Feel it, This is you mind. How does it feel?-"

While at Hogwarts, Nick had largely ignored old daily routines such as meditation, and he was starting to realise how his failing to relax or to sort his mind had only added to the first term's stress.

"-What tempature is it? Let it expand, let it create a world for you to explore. Let your mind create place for itself within you…"

Mao carried on, leading Students through their very first exploration of their mindscape, not yet building, changing, or altering anything. Nick, however, leaped right into his mind and got to work tidying up.

Nick's mind was based of his maternal grandparent's cabin. He had spent a period of time there between his parents death and his being moved in with his aunt. The Cabin itself sat in the center of a grove of stocky white barked trees. On the edge of his mind sat three things: a set of twin mountains, a valley of flowers, and a waterfall that started from a tall rock and ended in a pond that went nowhere but down.

The first thing Nick checked was the water fall, near the base of the waterfall sat a conspicuous pool of inky black oil. Peering over the rocky ledge, Nick witnessed an alarmingly angry version of himself, smashing at the surface with relentless fists, as if trying to break free and cause him mayhem.

How does one clean up an oil spill in one's mind?

Nick tried cupping his hands and, after a quick visit to the cabin for a cloth, dumping the oil on to the cloth, but the oil slipped through his hands and back into the water. The enraged version of himself only grew angrier.

Nick waved it off. What good was this doing? If anything, Mao might be able to enter his mind using Occlumency later on and help him deal with the issue. But for the time being, Nick wandered around his mind just a little while longer, picking up random thoughts and memories and putting them back where they belonged.

A letter sat fluttering in the branches of one of the white oak trees. Nick plucked it up, and found it contained nearly all his memories with Luna. He took the thick envelope back the cabin to place on the bookshelf, safe and sound.

Nick went back to wandering outside, looking for other things to tidy up. A pile of pages lay forgotten on the forest floor at the base of a mountain, not far from the cabin at all. Upon further inspection, Nick noted that the pages represented all the English he had learned at Hogwarts thus far. Some of the pages were organized in a book already, but there were still a lot of loose pages that needed to be filed and sorted through.

Nick had only just placed the English book in his book shelf when a bird landed on the window, letting out an alarming cry that sounded suspiciously like the class bell.

Nick concentrated on his body and with a stiff groan, he found himself no longer in his peaceful mindscape but back in the DADA classroom, just in time to get to his next class.

Marcus, Eddie and Hugo hovered over Nick, all waiting patiently for Nick to collect his things for the next class.

"Did you hear what he assigned us?" Hugo asked in outrage, once they were safely several corridors away from the DADA class.

Nick shook his head.

Hugo puffed out his chest and flung his arms in the air, "Forty-four inches on the best practices for constructing and maintaining a mindscape. Due next class"

Nick smirked knowingly, "Four standard pages? It could be worse- _will_ be worse."

Hugo looked ready to blow a fuse, while Marcus and Eddie both let out a long string of angry comments towards the new professor. Marcus's spiel was both longer and more... creative than Eddie's.

(page break)

The following weeks carried on in a flurry of homework and quidditch practice. What precious free time Nick did have was spent brewing potions for the twins or practicing Parseltongue with Harry.

Ron and Hermione often accompanied Harry to the Parseltongue library but the two worked on their own assignments or, when Ron could manage to convince Hermione to take a break, the pair played exploding snaps.

Nick tried to spend at least an hour or so once or twice a week with Luna in the library, but if the quidditch captain ever spotted Nick outside of class he was often dragged outside to practice. He couldn't catch a break.

By the time the third weekend of February rolled around, Nick was about ready cast an Incendio and burn down the stupid quidditch pitch.

Harry and Ron didn't understand. They were both envious of the intense workout schedule the Ravenclaw team was under, wishing Gryffindor could be just as well-prepared. Hermione was very sympathetic, however, and on more than one occasion she managed to save Nick from a particularly grueling quidditch practice.

When the Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin game did finally roll around, most of the Ravenclaw team just wanted the damned match over and done with.

Nick was surprised to see the twins, Ron and Hermione all in the stands, cheering their hardest for Ravenclaw. A spattering of the Slytherins whom Nick tutored in potions even showed up to watch. Which, for Nick, was beyond weird. Had they all become friends at some point? Surely if they were simply in a mutually-academically-beneficial relationship, then there was no need to attend each other's quidditch games. It was not a friendship, he told himself, just an 'acquaintanceship.'

Nick spotted the Carrow sisters and wondered if they had managed to drag a few choice Slytherins along with them. The Carrow sisters, after all, were at the very least acquaintances or associates, if not loosely-termed friends.

Still, house pride and all should mean that the Carrow sisters were on the _other _side of the stadium, with their _own _house.

Nick tried not to think about it as the game progressed.

The seeker for the opposing team was mediocre at best, but the chasers and beater for Slytherin were _brutal_. Marcus Flint was more than happy to risk life and limb of his opponent to win the game.

Nick was not even remotely as passionate about any school sport enough to land himself in the hospital just for a win. However, when Marcus Flint gave Nick a very knowing grin, Nick's hackles went up. What had the slytherin captain heard- or _thought _he'd heard- that justified that intense smirk? That kind of look was the look a predator gives its prey, right before it strikes. It said, "I know just enough to destroy you"

As much as it unnerved Nick to see the quick smirk, he also realized that Marcus Flint _could _truly have enough on Nick to destroy him. And that scared the shit out of him.

Knowing someone like Oliver Wood was able to destroy him wasn't quite as intimidating, seeing as Oliver had no reason to hate Nick in the least. Not to mention the fact that Oliver seemed to want everything hidden far more than Nick did.

Grant Page's threat to annihilate Nick with such a simple act was more insulting than actually threatening. Nick had assumed earlier that Grant was a friend, but then to have the boy threatening to destroy Nick's chances of schooling at Hogwarts, to his teasing to reveal what could very well land Nick in Azkaban without a thought, hurt Nick more than it frightened him.

If Marcus Flint, captain of the Slytherin team, knew one- or _any- _of Nick's secrets, he had neither reason to keep the secrets nor to fear retribution from Nick at all. The only thing keeping Nick in Marcus's good books was, to Nick's knowledge, the praise of Professor Snape, and the fact that the Ravenclaw boy tutored a good portion of the Slytherin house in potions. But seeing as how many of those he tutored were now traitorously cheering for Ravenclaw, suddenly Marcus had real motive to ruin Nick's life. Gods above and Merlin have mercy, Nick hoped that whatever Marcus knew wasn't _that _incriminating.

In the mean-time, the best thing Nick could do was convince the Slytherin captain that he was, in fact, a force to be reckoned with, and therefore not worth angering. So Nick set to work employing every quidditch lesson, narrow escape from a dragon and dodging of rockslides via handmade broomstick Nick had to score an unholy amount of times.

On his own, Nick managed to get the Ravenclaw team one hundred points. Although, with well-timed assists and expertly maneuvered distractions Nick helped secure another sixty points. The other two Ravenclaw chasers were not to be outdone. They managed to score several times on their own, adding an additional eighty points. When the Slytherin seeker managed to finally catch the snitch, the Ravenclaw team was still well in the lead by 210 points.

Though Marcus Flint looked absolutely pissed, he had long stopped sending Nick threatening glares.

"I thought you said you didn't like quidditch?" one of the Ravenclaw beaters snickered when they all finally made their way into the changing rooms, the game blessedly over, with the Ravenclaw team as the champions.

Nick tried to force his arm to stop throbbing. At least two bludgers had been walloped into his side with great speed (thankfully not cracking any ribs), along with several aggressive shoves by the Slytherin chasers. That, coupled with the many stunts Nick had pulled in order to get possession of the quaffle left him feeling as if his arms had been pulled out of their sockets and shoved forcefully back in. Several times.

Nick pulled the sweat-soaked robes off over his head. "I do not, I just didn't want to lose…" Nick knew he didn't sound even the least bit convincing to anyone.

"You weren't that into it in for the first part" Grant pointed out with an eyebrow raised. A few others nodded in agreement as they discarded their own sweaty robes.

Nick looked up at Grant in mild surprise. They hadn't spoken one word since the party, why now? Because of _quidditch?_ Grant sneered slightly when Nick meet his gaze though, which Nick supposed meant that the older boy was still disgusted with him.

"Yeah, what changed your mind?" The captain asked with genuine curiosity. Nick had no doubt that the captain intended to research and study quidditch in some academic sense after he graduated. "What was your motivation?" The captain questioned sternly. Nick could just see the captain taking notes in his mind for later.

"I..Marcus Flint. He seems to know something. I didn't want him to think I should be underestimated."

The entire team burst out laughing. Really? Laughing? It wasn't really fair, in Nick's opinion.

"Nick, you jumped off your broom to intercept a pass. Then non-verbally _and_ wandlessly summoned your broom. I don't think _anyone_ is going to underestimate you."

Someone else laughed again. "The look on Professor McGonagall's face when you transfigured your broom into a half-dragon and had it attack Marcus Flint for a few seconds, just so I could score? I seriously thought she was going to die of either shock or laughter. Or both." One of the other chaser grinned madly. "Also thought she was gonna disqualify you for sure, but I guess there's nothing in the rule books about turning brooms into dragons, eh?"

"He doesn't really know anything" Grant rebutted, aggressive . The team stilled and looked on in silent shock. "Marcus Flint, I mean. He doesn't really _Know_ anything, trust me. Apparently he heard from some idiot Slytherins that you fancy Cassandra Elphinstone."

"...Who?" Nick asked, not recognising the name.

A water bottle sailed out of nowhere and struck Nick in the back of the head, effectively grabbing his attention. "Oi! What do you mean, who?" a feminine voice coming from the back of the room griped, very much offended. "We've been on the same team for months!" one of the beaters, long hair tied back in a frizzed ponytail, was snapping at Nick indignantly. Clearly, the girl was Cassandra.

Nick muttered a very embarrassed apology before gathering his robes and scuttling away to the showers. The rest of the team howled with laugher as Cassandra dove into an angry tirade about being the unnoticed, solitary girl on the team. No one tried to get within close range of her. Being a beater and all, she had a rather nice arm on her and was _not _to be messed with.

The twins were waiting impatiently when Nick managed to dodge his way out of the changing rooms. "What was that? Where did you learn to do all that?" One of the twins asked.

"Home schooled." Nick said, as if this explained everything.

One of the Twins snorted, "Wandless magic, huh? Part of vampire's standard home schooling practice?"

Nick grinned, "Naturally. It is just after the Mermish classes and just before the Dragon taming classes."

"...You're joking right?"

Nick's grin only grew. He had after all taken a few crash courses on mermish and Dragon diplomacy.

"You can teach us though, right?" Fred asked.

Nick blinked in surprise, "Why?"

The twins gave an exasperated sigh as Nick led the way to the staircase and down to the parseltongue library. "Um, because it was wicked! At least teach us some wandless magic."

"Sure... ok. Come to the library with Harry, Ron and Hermione after dinner in the evenings. I am teaching Harry Parselscript and Parselmagic anyways." Nick shrugged, then let the matter drop.

The twins whooped with joy and bounced around Nick like five-year-olds in a candy store.

(Page break)

March was spent very much like January and February with intense DADA classes, evening study groups in the Parseltongue library and quidditch practice when every the Ravenclaw captain caught Nick out of class.

On the days when Nick couldn't seem to find time to sit and talk with Luna, the girl found her way to the Parseltongue library herself. Despite Luna's not being a parseltongue and therefore not able to actually speak the password, Salazar always let Luna in. She was an exception.

It was during the very first week of March, shortly after dinner as the group had all settled down to study, when a very panicked Luna Lovegood crashed through the portrait hole.

She panted and gasped as she tried to explain herself. Her usual air of blissful serenity was completely gone which, in and of itself was incredibly shocking to witness. "Ginny, Ginny Weasley was taken to the Chamber of Secrets. They said they were going to kill her!"

Everyone in the room stilled.

"Professor Mao looked _furious _but he didn't go down to the dungeons, he just left! He left the castle!"

"What do you mean, left? Why isn't he helping my sister?" Ron demanded, his question aimed at Nick. Panic rose up in the Weasley's throat while he stared daggers at the Ravenclaw for answers, as if Nick somehow knew.

Nick was taken aback, what on earth was he supposed to do about it? "I don't know. He must have a plan." He quirked his head towards Harry.

"Can't we do something?" Harry asked, seeming to catch onto Ron's desperation. Nick shook his head, "We don't know how to break the bond."

"But if Tom Riddle is down there, can't we stop him somehow?" Ron asked.

The twins looked equally eager to rush into danger, Nick tried looking at Luna for help calming the group, but she was clearly distraught and anguished for friend. It struck Nick then that he and Ginny were Luna's only real friends. Ginny was more so, since the girls had been close ever since they were very small. It was likely that Ginny had helped Luna through the death of her mother and supported her when the rest of the Ravenclaw girls spoke so cruelly.

Nick tried to hold his resolve, but it crumbled when Luna looked at him with enormous, pleading eyes.

"Fine. Harry and I will go down, but the rest of you stay here. Luna, Ron, go wait for Professor Mao, tell him we have gone down as soon as you see him. Fred, George. Wait here at the entrance. If you hear us call for help, come down but otherwise stay up here."

Nick cut off the calls of defiance, "Harry and I are the only ones who can understand Andrus. It is better for you to be up here."

Without further delay, Nick grabbed Harry, and the pair vanished down the fireplace stairs, down to the snake's lair.


	11. Chapter 11

* Ah-oh I'm back! Chapter 1-10 have been updated with new content, so if you haven't had the chance go check them out first. My Beta Reader (Poetic Devices) and myself are nearly finished editing the story. We're going to be posting one chapter a week: Fridays (this week being an exception). As always, please leave comments, questions and concerns. We're always happy to hear from you!

Chapter 11

Nick felt his shoulder tense with each passing step further down. The sound of their footsteps echoed down towards Andrus' chamber. Not loud enough to disturb the giant snake though apparently. As Andrus lay fast asleep in his nest when the Harry and Nick crept down the stairs, finally reaching the chamber, one right after the other.

"Bloody Hell... that thing is _huge_" Harry murmured quietly, his breath itching the back of Nick's neck.

Nick waved for Harry to be silent, and pulled the boy through a side entrance of Andrus's personal chamber and into the main chamber. Laying halfway in a puddle of water, Ginny Weasley lay motionless. Her lips tinted blue and her skin deathly pale in stark contrast to her Hogwarts robes.

"Ginny!" Harry stumbled forward to the girl's side, forgetting for a moment where they were.

As soon as Harry had knelt to the ground to help, another figure stepped out from the shadows, swiping up Harry's abandoned wand in one fluid motion.

In a split second, Nick pulled out his own wand to fire a curse at the new arrival -Tom Riddle- but the shadowy figure was faster than Nick was, and a powerful banishing hex sent the boy crashing into a stone pillar nearby. Nick slumped down against the stone, his wand forgotten on the cold tiles, his mind too foggy to remember how to cast Latin spells without one.

Nick looked down at his hands in surprise, absently wondering where his wand had ended up. Something red and sticky was sliding down his arm and pooling in his palm. Movement caught in the glistening red reflection pulled Nick's eyes back up.

The figure of shadow raised his wand again, Nick gathered what was left of his energy and attempted to use his parselmagic for a shielding spell, but the hisses came out as half parselmagic and half Latin, with only part of the word "protego" audible amongst all the hissing. Tom Riddle's full body bind curse hit Nick directly in the chest.

"What's going on?" Harry demanded from his place next to Ginny, trying to put enough false bravado into his voice to make it clear he had the confidence to hex _anyone _who got in his way. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Tut _tut _mister Potter, where _are _your manners?" the Tom Riddle sneered, "One must always give their name before demanding the name of another. No need though, Mister Harry Potter... I know all about you." His laughs turned dark, and a pair of cold, soulless eyes met Harry's with unwavering boldness. "I know how your feeble, _mudblood _mother sacrificed herself for you. The fool, Dumbledore, believes it protects you. Has it Potter? Has it protected you from the scorn! The hate! The looks of pity and disgust that you so rightfully deserve? Hmm? Potter, do speak up. Did the sacrifice of your dearly departed witless wench-"

"Shut _up_!" Harry stood suddenly, but before he could lunge, Tom had raised Harry's wand and aimed it at his chest. Only a truly well-timed dive to the side kept Harry from being _crucio_-ed.

"Oh, I'm not finished speaking to you, _Potter_" Tom hissed, cracks of anger beginning to show through his calm facade.

Harry threw himself to the ground again, just as a volley of angrily uttered spells shot towards him. Desperately, Harry fumbled on the tiles to grab Nick's wand from where it lay abandoned.

Tom Riddle flung a body binding curse at Harry, but the boy managed to hiss out an impeccably-pronounced Parseltongue shielding charm. Tom's Latin curse bounced away harmlessly. Two blasting hexes and a crucio all followed, but none landed on their intended target.

Nick wasn't sure who was more stunned, Harry or Tom, when the cruciatus curse bounced off, just as harmlessly as the rest. Personally, Nick was more stunned that Harry was able to use Nick's wand at all.

"Impossible!" Tom screeched, realizing what had happened. But the fear on his face didn't last for long as he quelled the momentary lapse in his demeanor.

Harry grinned impishly. He thought he was winning. Nick grimaced at the almost _cocky _air Harry had begun to assume as the duel raged on.

Tom grew more and more frustrated as his spells ricocheted off of the parselmagic. Despite Harry's advantage of knowing two types of magic, Tom was still by far the superior dueler.

Harry lacked both the knowledge base of Hermione and the guerilla warfare tactics of a fighter like Nick's roommate, Marcus. So many things he should have learned, but never did, and these things could have helped immensely.

Tom managed to hit Harry with a blasting hex to the side, and a cutting curse to the back. The boy was not faring well as the duel continued.

"My patience is wearing _thin _with this dance, boy," Tom hissed, "Familiar of Salazar Slytherin, the greatests of the four, come to me! Aid me in this fight!"

A sickeningly grating noise of stone-on-stone filled the space as the mouth of the enormous statue at the end of the chamber opened. Slowly, deliberately, and with the utmost care, Andrus lowered himself from the hole and down into the chamber. Water splashed around the giant snake and sprayed Nick's petrified face.

Andrus made no vocal admission to notice any of the occupants in the room. His eyes stayed at half mast and focused on the ceiling. His head, though, was turned towards Tom.

"Kill him!" Tom thrusted an elegant finger at Harry, who stood motionless.

Potter trembled as he slowly backed away from the giant serpent. Two steps back and he stumbled on a loose bit of rock. Harry turned before he could lose his balance completely and sprinted down the corridor towards what he clearly hoped was an exit.

Andrus followed at a far too sedated pace to truly be considered chasing Harry.

Tom turned from the chase when the tail of Andrus flicked behind the stone door and down the corridor, after the steady thumping of Harry's footsteps.

Tom turned to Ginny, and the mask of sociopathic glee faded. Nick expected to see airy, aristocratic indifference for the frail and failing girl but without an audience, Tom's facade had faded entirely.

He gently crouched beside Ginny and brushed her hair behind her ear. WIth a slight wave of his wand and a muttered incantation, the water Ginny lay vanished and the girl's clothes dried.

"I am terribly sorry, dear Ginny. I had tried to get you to give the book to Potter." Tom whispered ever so quietly that Nick wasn't really sure if Tom said the words at all or if they were simply whispers in the wind which Nick's mind gave meaning too.

The torn look on Tom's face made Nick falter. Nick had hoped the boy would die, and so too would any of his line that were related to Voldemort. But the anguish in Tom's face and how he seemed to struggle with himself over the sacrifice of the girl suggested that the boy still had a heart - if not a broken and beaten one.

"What other option is there, though?" Tom asked the silent girl. Suddenly, something about Nick caught Tom's attention. "Ah, but there is another option isn't there. Ginny did mention _you_, the quiet boy from Canada." Tom picked up a battered, discarded book from beside Ginny and meandered his way over to where Nick was. He loomed over the still figure of Nick and looked him over with a heavily scrutinizing eye.

"You might just do..." Tom smirked. The boy strutted back over to Ginny and pulled out Harry's wand. He cast a complicated Latin spell that Nick neither knew nor could guess at. The effect was a small golden string appeared, which connected between Ginny and the book. Tom used Harry's wand to grasp the end that attached to Ginny. Carefully, Tom walked back over to Nick and forced his wand with the shiny string into Nick's chest, and the boy found he was unable to move from his place.

Nick would have screamed in agony had he not been in a full body bind. As it was, all he could do was sob in pain within the confines of his mind. The string forced its way into his body and latched itself to his magic. Powerful, hungry, and relentless: It sucked the magic from Nick's core like a Vampire in a bloodrage at the neck of a wanton woman.

Nick's body wanted to thrash on the floor. He wanted to carve a hole in his chest and force out the gold thread, this dark magic that he was completely unfamiliar with, but all he could do was scream and cry out in his mind.

Tom stood impassively above Nick, watching as the colour in boy's face washed away, becoming pallid.

"My my, you _are _powerful. One would never have guessed!" Tom mocked, but behind the mockery he was, quite possibly, being serious. "I suppose it is always the quiet ones that we must fear, though," he laughed cynically.

Briefly, Tom made the mistake of meeting Nick's gaze, and took a haggard step back. The sheer agony in Nick's gaze seemed to chip away at something within himself.

Nick couldn't keep his eyes open to see what Tom might do, to see if the boy had enough of a heart to stop the madness. The pain of having a latch forcefully sucking out his magic coursed through Nick's veins and captured every cell in his brain.

A sudden, cool breeze fluttered over Nick's skin, and the pain stopped.

Nick gasped out as the body-binding spell broke.

Alex stood behind Tom, fangs ripping at the boy's neck as Tom struggled to free himself. Hissing out pleas for death or mercy, he was powerless to Alex, who paid no mind to his struggling.

When Tom finally went limp in Alex's grasp, with no energy left to struggle but enough blood to just barely keep him, Alex withdrew his fangs from Tom's bloodied neck. He did not bother to heal the gaping wound he'd left.

Alex let Tom fall to the ground, heavy and pretty much lifeless as a ragdoll, before hoisting him back up by the scruff of his shirt.

"Call Andrus to us." Alex demanded, and his Vampiric magic forced the boy to comply.

An unharmed and unamused Andrus slithered back into the chamber not two minutes after the command was issued. Moments later, Harry staggered in after the serpent, very much alive and very much out of breath.

"Release your bond over Andrus to Nicholas" Alex demanded.

Tom whimpered, but shook his head. Alex hissed and bared his fangs, and finally Tom had no choice but to give in. A silver string of magic appeared between Tom and Andrus. Slowly, and with pained movements, Tom pulled the silver string from his own chest, before handing the wand back to Nick.

Praying that Harry's wand would work for him, Nick moved the wand to his own chest and let the bond to Andrus cling to the tattered remains of his own magic.

"Good Boy" Alex hissed menacingly, his fangs moving to Tom's abused throat again.

Nick jumped up from the ground and grabbed at Tom's arm, wrenching the sixth year away from a very displeased Alex. "Wait, we don't really need to _Kill _him," Nick pleaded.

Alex scowled, "He is Voldemort. Not even. Not really. He is a faded memory of who Voldemort once was. The sick bastard made a horcrux - as you well know! He," Alex grabbed the front of Tom's shirt and pulled the boy back to him, "he is one of them. A horcrux. Dark, dirty magic. It never should have come to be."

"Maybe it was an accident..." Nick tried, desperately clinging to threads of ideas. Nick saw Tom's regret, his anguish. The boy _must _have a heart. He was not a total lunatic, he didn't need to die.

Alex laughed humorlessly, "I very much doubt anyone accidently made a horcrux, Nicholas. This is unnatural, it must end."

"We could ask-"

"-Indeed," Alex grinned sadistically. He gripped Tom's chin and forced the boy to make eye contact. Tom whimpered in pain, and with all barriers down, he could do nothing when Alex forced his way into his mind. When Alex began to tear carelessly through memories, Tom screamed in pain and tried desperately to escape Alex's hold, but the Vampire's vice-like grip refused to let up.

Finally, Alex let Tom drop like dead weight to the stone floor. The vampire frowned down at the whimpering teen. Alex's eyes wandered thoughtfully over Tom.

"Very well, he may live," Alex muttered. "For now." At first, Nick thought his caretaker would simply leave, but instead Alex knelt down next to Tom and pulled out a thread of his own magic, attaching it gently to Tom's chest. A subtle flow of magic from Alex to Tom brought colour back to a gaunt face. The wound at the base of his neck began to heal itself bit by bit. The haze that surrounded Tom seemed to fade as the boy lost consciousness from the onslaught of vampiric magic.

"Let us head up to the surface. There is no need to dwell here anymore." Alex hoisted up Tom like a sac of potatosl and moved him next to where Harry was helping up a very shocked Ginny Weasley. "Faer, if you would," Alex instructed.

Nick looked over at Andrus. The basilisk was chatting amicably to Fawkes who was perched on the serpent's nose. Both seemed remarkably uninjured.

Nick grabbed hold of Faer's tail just in time for a blast of icy wind to blind him.

When Nick managed to open his eyes again, he found himself in the Hogwarts medical wing.

Alex deposited the limp Tom onto one bed, while Nick and Harry moved Ginny to her own. Harry moved as if to sit in the chair next to Ginny's bed, but Faer grabbed the boy's shoulder and led him to a free bed, making him lie down at once.

"Sorry kid, Fawkes made me promise to heal you. Wanted me to make sure you rested yourself. By force, if necessary." His lips quirked up at the edges as Faer turned back into his phoenix form, settling himself on Harry's chest. Pale, silver tears slid down Faer's beak and onto the gaping hole of a wound in Harry's side.

At once, the tissue and muscle healed, leaving neither scar nor mark to show that Harry had even been grazed in the first place.

Harry watched, wide eyed and too surprised to care that he was being forced into bed rest.

"Where is Mao?" Nick asked Alex.

The vampire stood with his back straight, arms clasped behind his back. He was the perfect picture of a man in control.

"Mao and I decided it would be best if I handled this situation" Alex answered smoothly.

Nick raised a skeptical eyebrow, "In other words: You forced Mao to contact you if Andrus attacked again. When he showed up, you stunned him and came here."

Alex's features remained impassive, but Nick could see the glint of mischief in his Uncle's eyes.

"Mr. Potter! Miss Weasley! Is everyone alright?" A flustered Mcgonagall stormed into the hospital wing, a concerned fire in her eyes.

"Move _away _from my patients, please, all of you. Go! Out! I need to assess the damage." The school nurse shoved and pushed out Alex and Mcgonagall to the far end of the hospital wing.

Faer, still in phoenix form, rested at the head of Harry's bed before the healer could shoo him to the other end of the hospital as well.

Pomfrey tisked and tutted as she checked over Nick and Ginny. Both she diagnosed with magic fatigue and ordered bedrest for at least the night. Harry got a particularly evil eye when she performed a rather fancy Latin spell, scanning for further injury and evidence.

"Battling a Basilisk, Mr. Potter?" the healing witch asked sternly.

Nick raised an eyebrow. Neither Harry or Andrus had looked like they had been in much of a battle, especially in comparison to the others.

"You are remarkably lucky you had a _phoenix _with you. Merlin knows you'd be dead otherwise. Honestly, why you lot didn't think to grab a professor!" Pomfrey met Harry's eye, but the boy simply gave an unapologetic shrug. Pomfrey _tutt_ed again before she moved on to her next patient.

Pomfrey had only just begun to raise her wand to cast a diagnostic spell on Tom, when the hospital wing doors swung open dramatically and a very calm Dumbledore strolled in, flanked by a far more disgruntled Professor Snape.

Alex and Professor McGonagall took the Headmaster's cue and followed behind him, back towards the bed-bound students.

Just as they approached Tom's bed, a bright burst of flames marked the arrival of Fawkes.

Hanging on to the Phoenix's tail feather for dear life were Fred, George, Ron and a much calmer Luna Lovegood.

"Ginny!" The four cheered, ignoring cries of outrage from the school's mediwitch. The group engulfed Ginny in a bone crushing hug. Fred and George patted their little sister down, looking for any major signs of injury, not caring that Pomfrey had already done so.

"Now see here, Headmaster!" Pomfrey exclaimed as she watched the four new arrivals.

But Dumbledore smiled so disarmingly, that the healer faltered. "It seems as though everything has worked out in the end" he said, "Miss Ginevra Weasley, I'm pleased to see you made it out of the Chambers. With a little help, perhaps?" The headmaster turned a twinkling eye to Harry and Nick.

Nick thumbed the look back to Harry, saying, "I got stunned as soon as we set foot in the chamber. Harry was the one who dueled Tom ... and Andrus, apparently."

A silvery eyebrow rose up. "Tom, you say?"

Harry pointed to the shivering mess of a boy at the end of the line of occupied beds. Tom was curled up into a human ball.

With the attention pushed back to her most severe patient, Pomfrey bustled back into action. Forcing a calming draught down Tom's throat, she slowly coaxed the boy to lay down. Tom did so without protest, either out of pride or because he was too weak to speak.

Nick would have classified the look on the headmaster's face as mildly surprised, if not a bit curious. Then again, the headmaster never seemed to show much emotion beyond grandfatherly joy or amusement. Perhaps the headmaster was truly shocked. It was impossible to tell.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle," the Headmaster confirmed. Tom looked up, just briefly. The pained expression on his face dropped, just long enough for him to scowl darkly at the headmaster. The pain returned in full force, however, once he let his head fall again, and Tom curled into a ball once more. The wretched man began to whimper in unbridled pain.

Professor McGonagall looked around the room, looking at each student carefully, "I assume it is quite the story how this all came to be." Her tone and expression were as stern as always .

"Another time Headmaster, if you would. The children really must rest." Pomfrey straightened herself from Tom's bedside. She looked between the headmaster and the door.

Her ever so subtle dismissal was ignored.

"Who saw fit to bring mister Riddle to the hospital, _unguarded, _after he attacked two students?" Professor Snape inquired. His eyes fixated on Harry.

"None of the students were in any danger from the Riddle boy" Alex drawled, "As you can _plainly _see, he is in no condition to leave his bed. Much less attack mister Potter or miss Weasley."

The professors and the Headmasters all turned to look at Alex.

"Mr. Legaunt. I had not heard you would be visiting," The headmaster said. The twinkle in his eyes dimmed as he looked over the vampire. Warily, the headmaster stepped to the side, just enough for Alex to join the semicircle of professors.

"Professor Mao asked that I deal with Andrus, as he is a Basilisk. Even with one of Andrus' age, it has no effect on an ancient Vampire such as myself. Faer was kind enough to frost me straight into the chamber of secrets. By the time I had arrived, Tom was about to cancel the soul-stealing curse he had placed on Nick, which I assume was originally placed on Miss Weasley, then transferred to Nick when Ginny began to show signs of death."

The headmaster looked at Tom. Again, a look of mild surprise graced the old man's features.

"How is it he got this way?" Pomfrey asked, none too gently. "I see his throat has been ripped to pieces," The healing witch leveled an accusing glare at Alex.

The vampire paid no mind to the witch. "Nick, if you would start from the beginning. I'm quite curious, as I am sure the Headmaster is as well, how this all transpired."

With some prompting, Ginny started to regale the story with the diary that talked to her like a friend, and Luna stepped in when Ginny's story came to her being abducted. Then Nick took over, once Luna came to her own arrival at the Parseltongue library. And so the story went. Narrators traded off as the story wound its way through the complicated events of the day.

By the end, the twins had finished the story in tandem with a brief explanation of Fawkes' showing up in the library to take them all to the hospital. The headmaster looked genuinely thrilled upon hearing of the adventure, although the other professors seemed a bit more shocked or somewhat dismayed. The news of Tom and his near murder of multiple students was far more grave than Dumbledore seemed to be taking it to be.

Pomfrey looked warily down at Tom. She was struggling between healing the badly wounded teenager and ignoring the plights of the Dark-Lord-to-be. Her nursing instinct seemed to win out in the end, when Tom let out a very quiet, pitiful whimper.

"Very well. All seems to have ended well enough. Mr. Potter. Have you made a decision on my offer?" Alex turned his attention to Harry. The boy shook his head. "Very well. You still have several months to consider. I shall send Mao back to the school with Faer. I suspect, headmaster, that you have reservations about Tom's reintegration into the school." Seeing the headmaster stiffen, Alex nodded, "Very well. Faer, you are to spend the remainder of the term with the boy. Guard him both from attacks from other students and prevent him from attacking others. At the end of term, if you have not found a suitable placement for the boy, I shall take him with me when I pick up Nick." Alex declared.

"Are you heading back to Canada then?" Nick asked.

Alex nodded, "I've made great strides since finding one of the objects. There have been many clues as to where the wand lies," Alex sent a significant look to the Headmaster, "Now this only leaves the stone to find, and then I shall be able to return home."

With no further postlude, Faer soared over to Alex, all feathers and frosty chill, and the pair vanished in a whirlwind of ice and snow.

"Headmaster, I really _must _insist they all rest now." Pomfrey said. She clasped the side of the Tom's bed rather tightly, her face drawn and her whole posture weighed down.

With only a token protest, the Headmaster let himself, Snape and Mcgonagall be shooed from the hospital wing.

Moments after the doors had closed, Faer returned with Professor Mao in a blizzarding vortex. The Chinese Shaman did not wait for the mediwitch's dismissal. With a brief nod to Nick, he ambled his way out of the hospital wing.

The Ice phoenix and the Fire Phoenix shared a glance. Together, they began to sing a soothing melody. Gentle tears ran down Faer's feathers to drip into the half-closed eyes of the boy below. Tom blinked as the water hit his eyes, but otherwise didn't move to stop the tears. Soon enough he had calmed down more than he had all evening, and slowly began to relax into the bed. Long before the song ended, the students were all asleep and Pomfrey was resting her eyes in the chair next to Tom.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"And just what are we to do with the boy, Albus?" Professor Mcgonagall whispered harshly, "Surely we can't simply _leave _him to that… that _blood sucker_."

"I don't mean to sound harsh, my dear Minerva, but who else would want the boy? Regardless, is there any reason we let mister Riddle leave so freely?" The headmaster questioned.

Snape nodded in agreement, "Even if he did not share a common history - and in this case, soul - with the Dark Lord himself. He still attacked several students over the course of the school year. In many cases, the victims only lived through sheer chance."

Professor Snape stood as far away from the boy in question as possible.

In his half awake state, Nick was amazed to note that Professor Snape didn't pay the least bit of mind to his least favorite student, Harry Potter. If he had, he might have noticed that The Boy Who Lived also seemed to be awake and listening to the conversation.

The professors carried on with their debate, but Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall completely ignored Professor Snape's suggestions to "drown the boy."

They barely managed to pay attention to him long enough to agree with his _much _more reasonable suggestion of handing the boy over to the authorities.

Instead, the two rattled through a list of wizard families in Britain and debated their abilities to handle a boy like Tom Riddle.

"I have no doubt the Malfoys would love to have the boy" Snape commented dryly. Clearly not happy at being ignored. When his colleagues merely gave the younger professor a patronizing glance, Snape bristled significantly. "Then send him to the Lovegoods. Or better yet, the Weasleys. Surely _they _could take in another misfit, and if it's love and strong parenting you think the boy so desperately needs, I am sure Molly can provide both in spades."

Nick doubted the suggestion had been made with any sense of seriousness, but Professor Dumbledore seemed like he'd begun to consider it.

"Headmaster, you can't honestly be _considering _such an arrangement? To ask the Weasleys … after everything that has happened!" Professor Mcgonagall gave up all pretense of whispering.

The potions master had crossed his arms and was digging his nails into his own skin. Even from across the room, Nick would hear the potion master's teeth grinding as he tried to restrain himself.

The headmaster was either blissfully ignorant, or perhaps intentionally ignored Snape. Dumbledore carried on justifying the potential placement.

"Headmaster, I _must _disagree with you. I would rather Severus take the boy-"

"I will do no such thing!"

"-for the summer then, to ask that of the Weasleys. It really is too much."

Someone burst through a door on the far side of the hospital wing.

In no uncertain terms, the mediwitch told the three bickering adults exactly what she thought of their late night argument in front of her patients.

(Page Break)

The next morning, Nick woke up with a start.

His arms were trapped. Nick tried to sit up, and in the process he caught sight of the light blue hair cascading over his chest. Nick pushed and nudged until he managed to get one passed out Faer off of him.

"Bloody frozen... _feather duster,_" Nick muttered angrily as he pushed himself off the bed and staggered a few feet. Harry and Ginny were both already awake in their own beds. Ron and Hermione were both sitting comfortably on the end of Harry's bed. The four were quietly discussing the idea of Tom Riddle living with the Weasleys.

"Mum's never going to allow it." Ron pointed out, "He's the bloody _Dark Lord, _no matter what form he's taken."

"And he _did _try to kill me," GInny added thoughtfully. She didn't sound nearly as concerned about the idea as Nick thought she really ought to be.

"But if the headmaster said.."

Harry scoffed, "Dumbledore's not a bloody saint, Hermione. That bloke in the other hospital bed is _Voldemort_. I agree with Snape - no wait, listen Ron I'm serious! - Yeah, for once, I agree with the greasy git. We should just off him now, while we've got a chance."

Nick and Hermione both shot a look at the figure in question.

Tom was curled into the fetal position, stiff as a board and quite silent. It was hard to tell if he was awake or not.

Nick looked back at the passed out at Faer, and wondered if the ice phoenix had sung to Tom the whole night, just so the broken boy could get a small amount of sleep.

"He's family" Nick cut in, finding room on Ginny's bed to slump himself "He should be staying with me, if not one of the other branches of the family. Really though, we are both the last of our branches, I think we should stick together. Not for sentimental reasons, obviously, but you know what I mean."

Ron rolled his eyes, "I thought you hated the guy."

Nick shrugged, "He's family …" Nick trailed off to a stop, taking a moment to think of a way to make it clear to the others. A thought struck him. "He's like Percy. Annoying, yes but still family."

"Percy doesn't try to kill other people's sisters" Ron pointed out angrily. "This guy is a mad man. We should definitely hand him over to the authorities."

The others nodded in agreement, but Nick shook his head.

"You don't understand. Tom Riddle is the Head of the Slytherin family. If nothing else, he will have the support of his entire extended family. Which may seem very small if you only look in Britain, but the family has been spread around the world and we still keep in touch. Particularly between heads of family houses."

"Would your family get involved, though? I mean, he _is _He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, family or not." Ginny pointed out.

Hermione looked over at the statue-still boy two beds over. "Is he though? This is Tom Riddle. He hasn't had the chance to become a dark lord. Maybe this time around... he won't be."

Ron scoffed, "Yeah right Hermione. He was _born _evil."

Harry nodded, "Look 'Mione, he tried to kill muggleborns all year. Then he kidnapped Ginny and tried to use her in some weird, dark, sacrificial ritual. The guy is crazy, through and through. We should lock him up."

Ginny nodded slowly. "If he is the younger He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, what if he found the older one and they paired up?" There was a brief silence as each imagined the horrors this could bring.

Nick shifted his weight on the pristine white sheets, tucking his legs under him. "Fine, he's not great. But even in the very unlikely situation where the family decides not to come to his aid. Alex is an official family friend and has been for generations. He will definitely get involved, which will mean his coven gets involved. Alex's coven is massive and comprises of a lot of Ancient Vampires. Your government would be annihilated if they tried to imprison Tom."

"Your uncle nearly killed Tom Riddle, why would he care?" Harry asked Nick.

"Fred and George have nearly killed you before" Ginny pointed out.

"Whose side are you _on_?" Ron asked, annoyed. The girl shrugged. "That's different. _They're _not batshit crazy, unlike that menace to society."

Nick looked over at the boy to whom Ron was pointing.

A harsh voice croaked out, "I can hear you."

Everyone flinched dramatically, and Ginny let out a small yelp.

"Er … good morning, cousin," Nick said, a bit guiltily. He hadn't really been defending his family member all that valiantly to his friends. In his own defence, a lot of what Ron had said made sense.

Tom didn't bother to respond or move in any way to indicate he'd heard Nick.

"Did you, uh, have an idea of who you wanted to stay with?" Nick tried to ask.

Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione all sat, not moving even a hair's width. Like at any time a ravage lion might catch their scent and descend upon them. Nick thought this was all rather silly, Cousin Tom was by no means capable of doing much damage at this point.

Tom Riddle still didn't answer and as the second ticked by everyone seemed to tentatively relax.

"Can he really hear us?" Ginny whispered to Hermione. Hermione shrugged.

Gently, Nick moved across the hospital floor over to Tom's bed.

He gently lowered himself down on to the bed, slowly reaching out and moving Tom's head so that the older boy was facing him.

"What are you doing?!" Ron hissed, his tone harsh.

"Get back here!" Hermione added.

Nick ignored them, waiting patiently for Tom to open his eyes and make eye contact. It took only a moment for Tom to open his eyes and leveled a glare at Nick that could cause a grown man to cry.

Nick met his cousin's gaze with determination and hissed out a mind connection spell.

Suddenly, he was pulled into Tom Riddle's mind. It was a bizarre feeling that Nick thought he'd probably never get accustomed to. It was like shutting your eyes, losing all sense of balance and that moment when your half asleep and half awake and can't seem to make heads or tails of reality.

When Nick regained his sense was standing in a broken down, abandoned building. The paint on the walls was worn and peeling. The floors were washed in bleach so often and for so long that the wood was splotchy and worn thin. There were a few windows, but the only view was of gray, dreary fog crawling past that smothering everything outside.

Occasionally, a high-pitched _crack _broke through the silence and caused shivers to run down Nick's spine. Whenever he passed a door, he could hear the cruel laughter of a herd of boys - most likely torturing some poor creature, by his guess.

The air was stale and moist. So thick was it that Nick felt like he was constantly walking though a ghost. The whole place reeked of bleach and mildew.

This mindscape was by far the most uncomfortable Nick had ever encountered. He would have thought that the mindscape was a setup to force out intruders, if it wasn't for the fact that Tom Riddle was too weak to set up any blocks within his mind. This deary and despicable place was his true mindscape.

Nick wandered the bleak halls, until he came to a door that was slightly ajar.

The door had half a dozen locks on one side, and the door itself was warped and splintered. It was as if it had been tugged on from the inside by a desperate soul to many times to properly stand straight anymore.

Nick gently pushed his way in. The room wasn't a room at all, but a windowless, lightless broom closet with a mattress sitting pitifully on the floor.

The mattress was neatly made and the floor dutifully swept, but it didn't make the room look any less pitiful.

Nick was no bed expert, but it looked as though someone had hastily chopped off the last foot or so, so that it would fit on the floor.

What mind imagined this kind of place? Was it almost entirely made up, like Nick's mindscape, or was it a real place that Tom knew intimately? Those who were naturally talented in mind magic often used real places. Tom struck Nick as the kind of person who was simply naturally good at things like Mind Magic.

"Why are you here?" A voice asked from the doorway.

Nick twirled around on the spot. A far more put-together Tom Riddle sneered back at him, much less pale and sweaty than he'd appeared back in the hospital wing.

"This place…?" Nick indicated the building in general.

Tom looked around the room in disgust. "The orphanage I grew up in" he spat." "I was moved to this room after I was accepted into Hogwarts."

Tom stood in the bleak bleached walls, dressed in what Nick would dub formal attire. A well fitted cream shirt, a vest of deep green, a thick taylormade jacket to cover it up. Even Tom's slacks looked freshly pressed and perfectly fit. The collar of the the jacket, thought, was propped up, as if to block out the harsh draft of the room from Tom's neck. Also, he wasn't wearing a tie, which Nick imagined was a conscious choice.

"Why keep it as your mindscape though?" Nick asked. "This place is... horrible. Why not use your dorms?"

Tom raised an eyebrow delicately at Nick. His slick black hair perfectly set about his face to accentuate the motion.

"You do know you can change your mindscape, right?" Tom made no move to answer. "Right. Here, come to my mindscape and I will show you."

Without waiting for an answer, Nick grabbed Tom's arm and dragged the boy through several layers of thought until they came to a door just outside. Nick grabbed the door handle and thought of his own mind.

When he opened his mind he came to the small waterfall he'd created there, within his own waking dreams.

Nick pulled Tom along behind him.

Tom looked around, his eyes resting briefly on the white barked trees that surrounded the small clearing, the flowers that outlined the deep pond, the waterfall that it fell into and the colourful fish that swam just below the surface of the water.

"This is your mind?" Tom asked.

"Part of it. There is more."

Tom's gaze rested on the oil that sat on the pond surface. It had grown a bit since Nick had last gone into his mindscape. Pounding away at the surface was his enraged reflection, still trying desperately to break free.

"_That, I haven't dealt with yet. It's not as bad as it looks. A friend once betrayed me and it brought out my deepest rage... so I trapped it here. Professor-Shaman Mao will hopefully help me deal with it later._" Nick, naturally, switched into his native tongue as he relaxed.

"_You're a parselmouth?_" Tom hissed in surprise.

"_All members of the Slytherin Line are_" Nick scoffed.

Tom seemed to pause for a moment, "_You had mentioned to your acquaintances that we are related._"

It wasn't really posed as a question, but Nick could read between the lines. "_We are. You're the last of the First son of Salazar's line and I am the last in the Line of the Second son of Salazar. Do you know much about our family?_"

Tom shook his head.

"_Well, there's lots of information in Salazar Slytherin's library. Though it's all written in Parselscript. You read Parselscript? No, well that's fine. I'm teaching Harry anyways, and I can teach you, too. Anyways, for as long as there has been a Slytherin line, the family has been an only son of an only son kind of family. That was until Salazar's father had six children, three boys and three girls. Salazar being the oldest of the boys. Anyways... since then, the family has spread and grown in ways it hadn't done before._"

Tom nodded along politely in detached interest, but Nick could read the boy's thoughts with no issues - they were in his mindscape after all. Tom Riddle was, quite genuinely, very interested in the honorable Slytherin family.

"_Anyways, there are seven major branches now. Mine and yours have been brought down to just the two of us. The other five major branches are huge, though. I really only memorized the heads of houses for the other branches. But moving on. Your branch, and one of the other major branches, the Wrong branch have disconnected themselves from the rest of the family._"

"_Disconnected?_" Tom frowned, listening raptly.

Nick shrugged, "_Just socially. Technically, I am forbidden from speaking to you, but I figured … well I hoped … that with everything going on you might reconsider. Maybe you would rather have some family support._"

Tom nodded thoughtfully, his mind working in overdrive as he plotted. "_Who is the head of the family?_"

Nick blinked, "_You are. Obviously._"

"_Not my branch, the family as a whole_" Tom hissed irritably.

Nick moved his head back a bit and raised an eyebrow at his cousin, "_You are the last in the line from Salazar Slytherin's eldest Son, who in turn was the Eldest son of José Salazar. You are the Head. I am next in line, by the way. After me is great uncle Gilbert._"

Nick thought he might have to explain the complete rules and obligations of being a head of a house, but Tom seemed to already know all that it entailed, the scale of difficulty that being the head of the Slytherin family carried.

A scruffy looking dog passed by the pair of boys. "_What's that?_" Tom asked.

"_A stray thought. I just remembered that I brought you here to show you how to change your mindscape._"

Nick turned to one of the trees beside Tom, and started thinking of it in the colour pink. He added meaning, memories and emotions to the connection and slowly but surely, the white bark began to turn rosy. Soon it was completely pink.

Tom quickly picked up on the technique after witnessing Nick started changing single and whole groups of flowers with just a change of his thoughts.

Feeling like Tom was probably getting the hang of it, the pair went back to Tom's mindscape to give him a hand at changing the scenery a little.

Nick sat off to the side while Tom worked. It was in small ways at first. Adding more windows and changing the wall colour of the corridors, but it was a start walls still hung over the pair like eyes and the halls still smelt of bleach but the place was beginning to look much less dreary and much more tolerable.

When the pair finally emerged from their minds, blinking their eyes open, Professor Dumbledore stood over them with his wand at the ready and a spell on his lips.

Tom scowled at the headmaster.

Nick was rather neutral towards the headmaster. Harry quite liked the twinkly-eyed old man, but the man didn't seem to like Alex, and he _definitely _didn't like Tom.

It was hard to say just what kind of person the headmaster was.

"Your friends were rather concerned about you," The Professor looked over at a small group of varying house allegiances. His wand lowered though not entirely away.

Nick's dorm mates, Eddie, Marcus and Hugo were all sitting together and talking about dorm life with Harry and Ron.

Luna and Ginny sat on a vacant bed talking about something in hushed whispers. The Twins, Lee Jordan, and Faer sat on the bed in which Nick used to be sleeping; they were eating chocolates from a pile likely sent from various branches of the Slytherin family. Typical.

Flora and Hestia Carrow from Slytherin sat with Hermione on the bed beside Ginny and Luna. The Carrow sisters seemed to be explaining pureblood tradition in all its glory and splendor to Hermione, who was happily pointing out major flaws in the ancient logic and begrudgingly agreeing on the occasional well-made point.

Nick was fairly sure most of the people currently in the hospital room were mostly there due to the fact that the others were only just released by Madam Pomfrey, with the exception of the Carrow sisters and his dorm mates. Obviously, they were here to see Nick. Or possibly just to defend Pureblood traditions and eat chocolate clearly labeled _for _Nick.

Nick noticed that the considerable amount of chocolate sitting on a table beside Tom's bed was untouched. Almost like his batch carried a terminal illness if one so much as opened the wrapper of one of the candies.

"Are we free to go then?" Nick asked hopefully.

The headmaster peered over his half-moon glasses and stared down at the boys. He seemed to search them for some unknown, dark secret - but he didn't seem to find anything.

"Madame Pomfrey has indeed released the both of you upon your awakening. Mr Riddle... I will request that you accompany me to my office to discuss your future."

Tom bristled. "I request Nicholas Slytherin accompany me then, as he is the only family member at hand."

It was a flimsy excuse if Nick ever did hear one, but the headmaster seemed to accept it.

He didn't even seem all that surprised at the fact that Tom called him Nickolas Slytherin rather than Nicolas Borda. The headmaster simply sent the boys to change.

Nick and Tom rolled out of bed and went to change into the fresh robes set out by Madam Pomfrey. The robes provided for Tom were standard wizard robes without any house affiliation, but Nick's had the crest of Ravenclaw on them.

Nick said a quick hello and thanks to those who remained in the hospital wing. He promised to explain as much as he could to the Weasley clan, all huddled together, as well as Harry and Hermione, after dinner at Slytherin's library.

Come dinner, the Carrow sisters demanded an explanation for themselves, claiming they would force him to sit at Slytherin table even if they had to body bind him to do it.

Marcus, Eddie and Hugo demanded an after curfew run through of event. Clearly, the three clever Ravenclaws wanted the most recent gossip as well, so he was going to have to explain and describe every detail of every meeting today.


	13. Chapter 13

Nick and Tom walked shoulder to shoulder, three strides behind the obnoxiously purple robes of Professor Dumbledore.

Occasionally, they passed an open classroom door or a small huddle of passing students. Each time, curious glances followed them down the hall.

"Ginger Newt" Dumbledore said to a gargoyle statue. The creature moved to the side, revealing a spiral staircase leading upwards. The password reminded Nick of the Headmaster's awful Yellow Candies.

"Lemon Drop?" Dumbledore offered a bowl to the boys. They were the very ones Nick vowed to never eat again. Tom sneered at the offer and at Nick's less-than-subtle reaction. Nick ignored him and did his best to politely decline. "Very well, please sit." Nick took his cue from Tom and remained where he was. "Very well, straight to the point I see. You were always that way when you thought you couldn't manipulate people Tom."

"I am curt with those I do not trust" Tom rebutted.

Nick remained a quiet observer.

"Very well Tom, as headmaster I must ask, do you wish to finish your education?"

Both Tom and Nick seemed to notice that the Headmaster had not asked if Tom wanted to finish his education at Hogwarts or at some other educational institution. In other words, Hogwarts was Tom's only options.

"I think it would be wise to do so, don't you headmaster? I would hardly be employable otherwise and I haven't a penny to my name." Tom bit out angrily.

"Very well, we will have to re-sort you of course as you will be treated as a new student from your past self. Taking your OWLS would be difficult otherwise."

'past self', the Headmaster had said. There was, then, perhaps very little distinction in the headmaster's mind between the Tom Riddle sitting to Nick's left and the crazed mass murderer who brought so much destruction and chaos to Britain.

Tom's eyes narrowed, but he made no move to protest as the headmaster slowly lowered the old leather hat onto his head. It sat there for a good long time before moving at all.

Nick wondered if the hat was perhaps still asleep. Unconsciously, he leaned in towards the hat trying to hear the whispered conversation between Tom Riddle and Hogwarts magical sorting hat.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted so loud Nick went stumbling backwards, tripped over the edge of the carpet and, with a squeak, landed on his ass.

Tom gave a smirk of amusement at his younger cousin.

Nick stuck his tongue out in turn. Quickly, He picked himself up and tried to piece together his dignity, thought Tom's side smirk made it hard to do.

"Same as always, Tom" the headmaster said warily.

Tom straightened himself. His eyes were cold when he met the headmaster's gaze, "I will not change for you."

"And who will you change for? You already know where this path leads, Tom."

Tom didn't answer. The headmaster seemed to grow older with each word uttered, as if the weight of the world was crashing down on his shoulders.

"Faer will stay with you at all times for the remainder of the semester, as Alexander has suggested."

Nick snorted. Alex had commanded Faer stay with Tom, not made a 'suggestion' to the Headmaster. Try as Dumbledore might, he would never convince Nick, or Tom that he was some sort of all powerful, all knowing grandfather to be trusted and obeyed. "As for your summer, plans will be made." The headmaster said with a note of artificial benevolence.

Tom sneered, "I don't need a babysitter".

Dumbledore looked over his half moon spectacles and gave the young man a look that brokered no arguments. "Plans will be made."

"If there is nothing else, Headmaster?" Tom sneered, his gaunt face twisted in equal parts disdain and disgust.

Dumbledore made a waving motion, dismissing the boys.

Once down at the fifth floor again, Nick pulled Tom's attention away from whatever dark thoughts had the Slytherin glaring at every passing shadow.

"Why did the hat take so long?" Nick asked.

Tom snorted, "It thought I should change house, start fresh."

Nick nodded thoughtfully, "You didn't agree?"

Tom was silent, his face relaxed for a brief moment, as some profound thought had passed through his mind, but Tom never shared it with Nick.

"Slytherin is all you have left that is familiar?" Nick guessed. He wondered if Tom would take his suggestion to turn his mindscape into the slytherin rooms. Tom didn't answer Nick though, he nodded to his cousin and gave a very short goodbye before starting to glide down the hall.

"Tom" Nick called after him. Tom turned slightly to look at Nick, "You will need school supplies. Send a list of things you need to me and I will owl for it. Consider it a late christmas gift."

Tom's eyes widened slightly, he opened his mouth to say something but Nick cut him off, "Spare no expense. You are the head of the family after all."

Nick was possative he could convince some wealthy benifactors in the family to pay for anything and everything that Tom requested.

Tom made no move to keep walking down the hall, so Nick took the opportunity "Where would you _like_ to go this summer?"

Tom frowned, "Not the orphanage."

"That was never even an option."

"I do not entirely dislike the idea of spending the summer with the Weasleys. Ginny was enjoyable to talk to. Easy manipulated" Tom added the last bit coldly as if to hid the warmth he clearly felt for the youngest red headed Weasley. "That being said, I do not trust anyone who Dumbledore thinks can change me, control me."

"You could stay with…" Nick was going to suggest Alex but Tom cut him off.

"I will not stay with that leach!" A look of pure loathing crossed his face.

"Well, do you know who you want to say with?"

Tom eyes thinned, "Not at the moment."

Nick shrugged, "Well if you want to stay with family let me know, I can start to formally introduce you to the rest of the the heads of houses. Before you go, do you want to come to the parseltongue library after dinner next week? We have a study session there most evenings. I'm teaching Harry Potter Parselscript if you want lessons."

Tom nodded in agreement before taking the opportunity to make his exit towards the Slytherin common room. Nick went back up to the Ravenclaw common room long enough to organize his books and homework for the next day before heading to dinner.

Luna was waiting outside the common room door, her hair a vibrant green braided intricately with guinea flowers in every possible fold. It was as if a bouquet as braided into neon grass blades and places upon the girl's hair. For something that should have looked so out of place, on Luna it looked stunning.

She didn't ask about the chamber or Nicks trip into Tom's mind or even Nicks relations to the soul fragment of the Mass Murder Voldemort. In fact she didn't ask any questions at all, she seemed content to talk at length about her father's interest in the Canadian House Hippo, which was a miniature hippo about the size of a small cat that feed mostly on household scraps.

Nick occasionally made comments and added bit of interesting facts, as Nick had owned a House Hippo when his parents were still alive but he had to sell it after his parents joined the hunt and he had to move in with his Aunt and her many children.

It was nice, Nick realised just before entering the Great Hall, to have a brief chance to just talk to someone and not answer a thousand and one questions. Nick looked down at his pretend younger sisters and wondered if Luna knew exactly what she was doing. She noticed Nick's looked, and smiled innocently. Not a true I-Have-No-idea-what-you-are-thinking innocent but rather a Luna Yes-I-Planned-this-perfectly-but -you-will-never-know-it look that meant she was far more aware of things than most people gave her credit for.

Nick didn't get a chance to call Luna out for her manipulation or even thank her for the conversation. The moment he stepped foot into the Great Hall, the Carrow sisters took hold of him and forcefully dragged him to the Slytherin table. Thankfully far away from the out of place Tom Riddle, who was currently ignoring the cleverly worded questions of his peers and dismissing the backhanded compliments from the younger years.

"So, what happened? Ginny was taken, now she's back and there is this new mysterious boy in Sixth year who seems to know Hogwarts quite well but apparently just transferred here today from homeschooling. O.W.L.s are in little over two months. Who would transfer now? You know though don't you" Hestia Carrow accused.

Flora leaned in encouragingly. Nick sighed and leaned in too. He whispered parts and bits of the short, broken and fragmented until at least with a well worded final chapter to his story it all came together.

Horror, surprise and amazement flashed over the girls' faces.

"You're RELATED to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Flora asked the very possibility seemed too far fetched to even consider.

Nick nodded solemnly, "He is a black sheep in the family."

"And Tom is related to him somehow?" Flora asked.

Nick shrugged. He wasn't about it admit they were both one and the same to some degree.

At that very moment, Nick looked over to his cousin. Tom raised an eyebrow at Nick. The blue phoenix perched upon Tom's Shoulder leaded it's beak towards Tom's ear. Tom twitched in irritation but made a gesture to mean lower. Nick motioned as if he were feeling the brim of a ball cap, the American Sign Language to say 'boy'. Faer and Tom nodded together.

"Nick?" Hesita waved a textbook in front of Nick.

Nick leaned in, "Tom is Voldemort's illegitimate son".

The girl's eyes widened like saucers.

"Son!" they both whispered. Those sitting nearby all seemed to still in surprise. The Hogwarts gossip mill was abuzz in moments.

"So, he helped stop the Heir to Slytherin?" Hestia asked. The gossip mill stilled in anticipation.

Nick nodded, happy to go along with the little depict, "Him, Potter and Professor Mao dealt with it."

Off the Gossip mill went again. Heroic tales of rescue, adventure, and the slaying of great beast quickly formed on the tips of tongues and passed like breeze in a port city, picking up tints and tastes of new flavors as it went.

As the stories grew around them, Nick took the chance to change the conversation and asked Hestia about her upcoming work with the hospital over the summer.

"I am so excited," Hestia grinned.

"It's, like, totally going to be, like, so great or whatever." Flora flicker her hair like a brainless American teen.

"Hush you," Hestia gave her sister a friendly shove. "What are you doing all summer? Meeting all of Fathers many potential suitors?" Flora's face darkened. Hestia slobbered in response. "I'm sorry sister. That was uncalled for. I know you are worried about the summer."

Flora tried to take a calming breath and relax her shoulders as Professor Mao had taught them.

"Maybe" Hesita said hesitantly, "You could convince Father to let you travel for the Summer? Spend time visiting family in Venice or Oslo?"

If Flora were any less of a lady she should have snorted. "What worthy suitors are in Venice? Oslo, perhaps there is the Trondheim heir might be a good enough to consider, but they are the only family worthy of any attention." Flora stabbed her broccial. The gentle hand of her sister on her wrist made her put the fork down. "I wish I had some great noble calling as you do sister, then father might leave me alone. Traveling is no great calling though, it's for those without opportunity or direction."

"Maybe you have a little elf in you?" Nick suggested.

The two Carrow twins looked up at Nick thoroughly insulted. Nick rolled his eyes, "Not house elf. How would that work? There are lots of kinds of elfs. Most travel all the time. Brownies or house elves, are one of the few who live in one place for their entire life."

"You've meet other types of elves?" Flora asked curiously.

Nick nodded, "Luna's meet more than me" Nick ignored their skeptical looks, "But I made a boon with a Forest elf once."

"Boon?"

"It is a favor or request" Nick explained.

"How does that work?" Flora asked, now truly curious.

"Normally a forest elf approaches a potential trader rather than vice versa. The Elf suggests a trade and they negotiate terms. Then the trader must fill their side of the bargain. The forest elf is bound by their magic to fill their side of the bargain once the other side has been filled."

"What did you trade?" Flora ignored her now cold plate of food in favor of questioning Nick.

"I traded the tooth of a Will-o'-the-wisp for a scroll written by Godric Gryffindor just after Salazar Slytherin left hogwarts."

"Will-o'-the-wisp? You have a scroll about _Salazar Slytherin_?!"

Half the great hall turned to stare at Flora. She turned a bright shade of crimson and tried to hid behind her sister.

"Look 'im up, Snake. Nick need his beauty sleep."

Nick looked up to see Marcus flanked by Eddie and Hugo. He shrugged helplessly to the sisters before letting his housemates abruptly herd him up to the Ravenclaw tower.

"So, we heard some of the gossip. Did the Weasley chit really nearly kick the bucket?" Marcus asked. He settled himself across Hugo's bed, taking up most of the space and forcing Hugo to curl into himself just to stay seated on his own bed.

Nick nodded, "Nearly, it was a close thing."

"You were there?" Hugo asked, shifting awkwardly trying to provoke and prod Marcus into moving over.

Marcus moved himself slightly to make room for Hugo, only to flop his outstretched legs on top of Hugo once the boy had settled. Hugo eye twitched but he said nothing.

"Yes. I was hit by a body bind fairly early on though." Nick explained, a pang of regret mingling in his voice.

"Did you get attacked?" Marcus asked. .

Hugo leaned over the edge of his bed, his eyes following Nicks every moving seeming to assess his roommate for damage. His movements, intentional or not, dragged Marcus's legs over the side of the bed.

Marcus yelped in surprise and tumbled onto the floor at Hugo's feet. Hugo smirked down at him.

"What actually happened?" Eddie asked intentionally ignoring Hugo's and Marcus's antics.

Nick jumped into an explanation. He painted the story in such a way that Andrus became some all-powerful beast of legendary proportions, and Tom became some confused and manipulated young teen, devoid of all blame. Harry took most of the glory with Mao cleaning up the mess and ultimately moving everyone to the safety of the hospital wing.

Faers sudden attachment to Tom was explained as a way to help heal some of the deep scars caused by being an illegitimate child of someone as truly unhinged as Voldemort.

"I feel bad for the Tom Riddle, he must be in a hard place" Eddie said.

Marcus shrugged, "Why? He's a hero now. He gets to go to school at Hogwarts, what's to complain about?"

"But He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is his biological father." Eddie pointed out. Clearly this fact changed Eddies whole view of Tom, but Marcus just wasn't seeing it.

"What does it matter?" Tom's a bloody hero now! Clearly he is nothing like his old man".

Eddie sighed loudly, "Others won't see it that way, not to mention that would have to throw a guy for a loop. Every dark thought or impulse could be a sign that Tom is like his father. Tom basically has to not only act like a bloody Saint, but think like one too. otherwise he will be seen as the next dark lord and run the danger of being dragged off to Azkaban for the slightest infraction.

Hugo nodded slowly, "I guess the pressure would be hard."

Eddie sat out a bit straighter and faced his room mates. "Tom has not family, no or little support, zero history to tie himself with and everyone expects him to fail. The pressure is more than enough to break any normal man. If Tom wants to survive, never mind succeed, he will need to have herculean strength and control of will to rival Buddha himself. He's in the house of ambition. Quite possibly the life he wants for himself is more or less completely unachievable for no other reason but his biological father."

"Buddha?" Hugo asked Marcus. Marcus just shrugged carelessly.

"Right, so Tommy boy has a hard knock life to rival Annie. Shitty and all, but it's still epic that he managed to help save the red hed chit. Shitty the girl couldn't save herself. That would have been cool. Girl power and all that. Though I guess she is all little young to be sexy. Maybe if Cho had somehow saved her with that mini dragon of hers."

"Marcus" Nick bit out, "Shut up."

"What? it would have been cool" Marcus insisted.

Eddie cut in, before Nick ripped a verbal strip off his roommate, "The poor girl was kidnapped and nearly drained of her life as some parasite attached itself to her magic and drained it so forcefully it caused her to faith and nearly die. She kept her magic by a hairs breath and if it hadn't been for Faer and Dumbledore's Pheonix the girl would likely have been little more than a squib."

"Shitty, yes," Marcus conceded.

"Marcus, you clearly have no empathy so continuing this conversation will only give a head ache to all involved. Go do your homework or something" Eddie sighed.

Hugo swooped in with a new trivia game based on Hogwarts a history, he happily dragged Marcus down to the common room and away from his seething dorm mates.

That night, Nick was riddled with nightmares of cold stone floors and angry reflections in the iry watery surface.

Nick woke with a start. The feeling of raging waters slowly receding from his skin. His skin left cool and clammy. Sweat stuck his shirt to his skin and the tangled sheets at the end of the bed kept the trapped feeling from braking entirely.

Nick hastily freed himself from his bed and shuffled down to the common room. The room was abnormally empty for 2 in the morning. No one was working on last minute potion essays or just reading one more chapters of some epic tomb.

The only other person up was Eddie who sat curled under a thick blanket by the fire. A copy of some unfamiliar french book in the boy's lap, opened but unread. His eyes watched the dancing flames as they skipped into the air and out of existence.

"Evening, morning, however you'd call it." Nick grumbled. He flopped himself into the chair across from Eddie.

Eddie look up without looking the least bit surprised. "A lot on your mind?"

Nicked nodded. His eyes closed as he tried to rub the images from his heads with ruff palms into closed eyes. The feelings were not so easily chased away though.

Eddie let the silence stretch for a time. Perhaps waiting for a thought or response from Nick but he got none. "Nick, you seemed … upset lately at Grant Page. Why?"

Nick opened his eyes and let his arms flop to the arm rest. "Why indeed?" Nick asked the starry ceiling of the common room.

Eddie waited patiently for Nick to collect his thoughts.

"He threatened to betray me, without a second thought. It's nothing big, nothing worth worrying about" Nick wasn't sure he was convince himself of the insignificance of Grants threat but he moved on, "It's just the thought. He spent a great deal of time together first semester. Most of it was for quidditch, but during winter break we spent a good portion of every day together. I just thought we were, not friends really, just close acquaintances but then he threatens to betray me for no other reason than because it suited him to."

"Would you have hated him less if he had threatened some other part of you, ?"

"I don't hate him" Nick argued feebly. "it would have been the same to me". Nick knew that wasn't true and if he couldn't convince himself of of the lie, Eddie would never believe it but Eddie didn't call him out on it.

"Why not take the power away from him?"

Nick shook his head slightly, "I can't."

Eddie leaned back in his chair, resting his head in the back of the chair. He said nothing as Nick stewed in his own thoughts.

Nick tried to convince himself he didn't hate Grant, but the feeling of rage he felt from his reflections kept coming to the surface of Nick's mind push to get out and seek revenge.

"You should forgive him" Eddie suggested quietly. The thought might have been for Nick, or it might have been for Eddie himself, who clearly had his own demons chasing him from sleep so late at night.


	14. Chapter 14

The next day, Nick barely paid attention in any of his classes.

History of Magic, Nick completely ignored in favor of meditating in the back of the classroom, unnoticed.

Again, Nick was trying to clean up that angry oil spill that held his enraged reflection. The seep of oil had grown to engulf the entire pond, and was becoming nearly impossible to control. Nothing Nick did seemed to help. By the time class was over, he was only more frustrated and tired, and no further along in letting go of his repressed anger.

At dinner, Nick sat with Luna in comfortable silence. The rest of the Great Hall swelled in volume until Nick and Luna finally gave up the conversation they were having and decided to trek their way down to the parseltongue library.

"What are you planning to study today, Luna?" Nick asked as he pulled out simple stories for Harry to practice reading, in addition to the basic letter chart, which was meant for Tom.

Luna pulled out a well-worn copy of _Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them_. Pages had been added into the book by Luna, so she could describe dozens of other beasts that were never mentioned in the fifty-second edition. She quickly flipped to a page with a description of the Canadian House Hippo. A half-done sketch of an ordinary house hippo sat beside a very brief description of the animal. Luna had dubbed the animal a M.O.M, level X.

"Luna, do you think you would ever write your own book on magical beasts?" Nick asked.

Luna shrugged, "I add columns to the quibbler every now and again... but publishing a book is such a lot of work." The idea seemed to have piqued her interest, even if she said nothing more on the subject.

Nick nodded in understanding. _Writing _a book and _publishing _a book were two entirely different sized mountains.

The portrait opened just then, revealing Harry, followed by Ron and Hermione as they made their way into the library. The three made themselves comfortable as soon as they arrived.

Ron tried desperately to convince Luna to play exploding snaps with him, or at least wizard's chess, but he had no luck. Soon, Hermione had him doing Charms review for the upcoming exams - or, as Ron put it ever-so-eloquently, their "Impending Doom."

Hermione had a much more optimistic outlook on the matter, but Ron was having none of it. Harry sat and practiced reading aloud the books that Nick had laid out for him as Nick started rewriting his Transfiguration essay, which Harry had proof-read the night before. Not too shabby, but not too great, either.

The group had barely gotten into the groove of their respective work when the portrait swung open again. As everyone else watched, in strolled Tom Riddle.

For a beat, Harry and Tom glared dangerously at one another.

"Why in the name of Merlin's saggy left ball is _HE _here?" Ron asked, incredulous.

"Ron! _Language_!" Hermione admonished.

"At least _he _is a parseltongue and a member of the Slytherin family," Salazar Slytherin pointed out coolly.

Ron muttered something darkly under his breath, which earned another indignant scolding from Hermione.

"Tom… Hi. Come sit over here" Nick said, although the way he said it rang with the implication, "You can sit over here, _I guess_." Nick motioned to the seat next to himself, "I've organized some of the work that I started Harry with."

Tom strolled over to the indicated chair and gracefully sat down, showing no signs of being even a little ill at ease in such unlikely company. He listened intently as Nick explained the different, snakelike shapes, which supposedly formed letters, all while he ignored the others in the room.

Ron had once described the Parseltongue language as a bunch of oddly shaped l's and S's. Nick thought the boy was crazy. After all, English was just l and O repeated and stuck together in different ways. D was l and O combined one way and B, P and Q were all the same too. N was the top half of O, and M was two top halves stuck together. U and W were just the letters N and M upside down and i was just half of N. T was two l's stuck together, as were X, V, F. Really, Parseltongue wasn't any different from English. Sort of.

"How does one use these..." Tom motioned to the collection of parseltongue scribbles he'd written, "to help with parselmagic?"

Harry looked up from his book. "Parselmagic is all about controlling your magic. The words don't mean much besides the meaning they have to the caster. Erm… does that make sense?"

Tom nodded tightly to Harry but turned again to his cousin, hoping for Nick to go into greater detail, which he did.

"You have to feel your magic and control it, in order for it to do what you want. What you say, how you say it, what you do with your hands is only effective so long as it is relevant to _you_."

"Which is why you often do wandless parselmagic," Hermione said primly, throwing a glance Nick's way.

"Is it possible to do wandless _and _wordless parselmagic?" Tom asked.

Nick shrugged. "If you wanted too, then it's probably not _im_possible. But I've always thought the words make it more... dramatic." He gestured grandly with one arm, as if that would further prove his point.

"Give it a try." Nick moved one of his own quills in front of Tom. "Here, try levitating it. Think of your magic. Feel it out, let it cooperate with you. Coax it out of your core, it should feel a bit like a tiny snake slithering through your veins and around your bones. Move it to your skin and beyond that. Most people move it to their fingertips, but Great Uncle Gilbert uses his toes. Don't know why. Once it's at that uppermost layer near your skin, think of what you want it to do. You can add words or movements if that makes it easier."

"But if you do use words, they have to be in parseltongue," Harry cut in. Nick nodded in agreement.

Tom looked at the quill for what felt like a very long time, before bracing himself and taking up the challenge.

His first attempts were poor at best.

He hissed "Levitate," "Up", and "Rise," all to no avail. He tried using his wand at random moments and swished it as if he were casting _wingardium leviosa_. Nothing worked.

Nick was surprised. Tom was a very powerful wizard, much more powerful than Harry or Nick, he _shouldn't _be having so many issues.

"Tom?" Nick asked, an uneasy waver in his voice. Tom looked near ready to burn the damned quill and anyone else in the room with a glare alone.

"_What_?" Tom bit out.

Nick took a gulp of air, "Maybe if you describe what you are feeling, Harry and I could help. Or just me, if you want."

"It's my magic," Tom complained bitterly, "It doesn't listen. It comes out of my core, I can feel it beginning to slither around my insides and getting ready to come out, but then it snaps off and goes right back to where it came from."

Harry, wholly unaffected by Tom's bad mood, nodded understandingly, "When I'm angry, my magic does that sometimes."

Nick's eyes lit up. "I'd forgotten to explain that!" he said. "Parselmagic is predominately used for healing, so you have to have a very calm spirit to get it to work properly." Tom scowled at the word "calm." Nick ignored the look and pressed on. "There are dozens of healing schools with entire _sections _dedicated to Parselmagic. Canada and South Africa both have healing schools dedicated to parselmouths and their unique magical skillsets."

"Really?" It was Hermione who looked surprised this time. It wasn't often that she didn't know something about magical education. "Before coming to Hogwarts, my mom and I found all the wizarding schools to compare them. We never found a healing school."

"Most Magic schools are very hard to find. The only way you would find a parselmouth school was if you spoke parseltongue" Nick pointed out.

"You can do damage with Parselmagic though, yes?" Tom asked.

Nick frowned. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Ron send him and Harry a very pointed look. "Yes, you can. Much like Latin spells, magic intended to do good can also be used to do great harm. An incision spell sent to the neck could do a lot of damage, for example."

"D'you think you could teach me a little healing magic?" Harry asked. "I work in my Aunt's gardens a lot in the summer and I get lots of little scratches and cuts. Healing spells might come in handy."

Tom raised a delicate eyebrow at Harry. He opened his mouth to ask something, but Harry met his gaze with a glare and Tom's mouth snapped shut, although the expression on his face remained aggravated.

Nick tried to see what the two were silently arguing about, but for the life of him he didn't understand.

"Sure, start by giving yourself a paper cut. Then direct you magic to the cut. This time think of the skin closing. Don't cut too deep. Healing muscle and veins is more complicated than skin and tissue."

Harry picked up a piece of parchment and set about trying to give himself a cut, not disturbed one bit by the instructions. Ron looked ten different types of freaked out, and Hermione didn't look much better. Luna, on the other hand, was still ignoring the group completely as she continued to fill in information on her parchment about different magical beasts.

Tom sat and watched intently as Harry gave the spell a try.

"It... feels a bit like a snake is licking my skin from the inside," Harry said thoughtfully as he watched his skin knit back together.

Tom picked up a bit of parchment himself, and with a single quick flick of his wrist gave himself a perfect starting papercut. He had no luck healing it though.

Both Nick and Harry tried to explain to Tom that he needed to calm his soul for the snake to leave his core, but Tom ignored them. Being the younger version of a very, _very_ messed up wizard, having a "calm soul" wasn't exactly going to happen overnight.

When curfew started to loom close, Hermione sent an impatient healing spell at Tom's finger and motioned for Harry and Ron to pack their things.

Tom glared at the bushy-haired witch, but said nothing.

"It's nearly curfew. You can try again tomorrow but _really_, there's no sense in getting detention over something as silly as a paper cut." Nick watched as Hermione stormed from the room and through the portrait hole, flanked by Harry and Ron.

"Maybe tomorrow, after we work on parselscript we can work on meditation... Maybe changing you mindscape a bit more will help" Nick suggested.

"Of course" Tom said icily. He packed his things and floated from the room like a browsing storm.

"I suppose we should head to the tower as well" Nick suggested.

Luna opened her book to the page on Basilisks and inserted her own, blank page. She looked up at Nick pointedly.

"Sure, why not. No one checks for late Ravenclaws, anyways." Nick shrugged.

As he packed his things up to head down to see Andrus, he noticed the rolls of ancient parchment he had brought from the kitchen under one of the recently mended chairs.

He kicked them gently back under the chair, vowing to look at them soon.

"Come on, we should be gone for long though" Nick opened the stairs down to the chambers and motioned for Luna to go first.

(Break)

"_Evening, Andrus"_ Nick greeted amicably.

"_Good evening, Nicholas, and who is this?"_

"_This is Luna Lovegood, she is very interested in Magical beasts and beings. She was hoping to find out more about basilisks,"_ Nick explained. "Luna this is Andrus. He was once Salazar Slytherin's familiar."

"_What would the child like to know?"_ Andrus asked with patient amusement.

Nick turned to Luna, "What would you like to ask?"

Luna sat down on the edge of the giant snake's bed of straw and tapped her quill against her temple a couple of times. "What is his favorite colour?"

Nick raised an eyebrow, but translated the question nonetheless.

Andrus seemed amused by the Luna's question. "_Green, it reminds me of the forest." _

Nick translated the answer. Luna nodded and scribbled down the answer. "Do you like gray?" she asked. "As colours go, how do you feel about it?"

Andrus hummed thoughtfully, "_It is dull. I do not care for it."_

Nick translated the answer once more and watched in amazement as Luna wrote that Basilisks, though they can survive in caves, tend to favor wooded areas.

She'd asked about _colours_, how on earth had she reached the conclusion that Andrus prefered the forest to the chamber of secrets?

"If you could have a pet, what would it be?" Luna asked.

"_I rather like my current pet,"_ Andrus said, letting his tongue flicker on Nick's skin. Nick rolled his eyes. Luna grinned when Nick translated Andrus's answer.

The night went on like that, with Luna asking bizarre questions like "pumpkin pie or Pecan tarts?" and Andrus giving equally bizarre answers.

The two seemed to enjoy themselves and by the time curfew rolled around, it took a great deal of persuasion on Nick's part to get Luna back to the Ravenclaw dormitories before midnight.

(Break)

Nick settled onto his bed to meditate before sleeping.

He closed his eyes and thought of his mindscape. Slowly, Nick felt his consciousness shift from the deep blue Ravenclaw dorm room to his bright green, forest mindscape.

Nick looked around the trees covered in white bark. Most of the odds and ends that represented the knowledge and events of the last year had been organized and given a proper home. A few lost pots and pans hung like christmas decorations from a small silver birch sapling. Three eyes and an empty envelope sat half-stuck under a rock. A quilt made of werewolf fur was rolled up haphazardly and mostly stuck into what looked to once be a squirrel home inside the hollow of a tree.

The rest of the forest was, for the most part, normal. Mushrooms of bizarre colour combinations grew at the base of trees among the neon coloured moss. The leaves of most of the white-barked trees were a deep green, but occasionally a pink or blue leaf would appear when a memory got caught on the tree. A thing like that was normal enough.

The lake, however, was anything _but _organized. Nick slowly, even a little reluctantly, made his way to the lake.

The oil still sat shimmering over the water; It had spread to cover the entire surface. The oil rippled violently every time the tireless, enraged reflection of Nick pounded against the surface, desperate to get out.

The forest was dead quiet, no stray thoughts wandering on snapping branches or alarms chirping in the distance. However, when Nick met the eyes of his reflection he could hear the howling screams of fury coming from his very own, messed up doppleganger.

The surface of the water seemed to crack a little. Half-formed and hazy fingers tore at the hole, trying desperately to make it bigger, to free the anger within.

Nick ran to the water in a panic and shoved the fingers back below the water. The ripples of oil smoothed over the gaping hole, and for the moment, the open space seemed to close up just a little once again.

He knew it wouldn't stay like that for long.

For a brief minute, Nick's rage reflection stood still. Then it seemed to boil beneath the surface with a force that knocked Nick back onto the shore, the oil erupted like a violent volcano. Still the reflection was trapped below, but the oil had grown twice in size and now covered much of the shore. The trees seemed to keep the oil at bay, but the once relaxing waterfall was now a nightmare cascade of rage and anger. Like a spring of frustration, oil spewed and spouted from the center of the pond and up onto the shore.

Nick stumbled back and ran, escaping the angry mess as he headed to the forest, staying just long enough to place walls and boundaries between the forest and the spouting volcano of rage.

With that done, he left his mindscape altogether. He'd had enough for tonight.

Nick gasped and shuddered as he returned to his dorm room. Sweat dripped down his back and his clothes clung to him like unpleasant memories.

Nick showered quickly, before dressing and curling up onto his bed again, trying to sleep off the uneasiness.

The nightmares of his anger taking control of his body persisted throughout the night. At half past three, Nick gave up and escaped his bed for the peace of the Slytherin library, hoping to get lost in some throwaway novel. But the downside was, he got very little sleep.

The next night was no different, nor was the night after that.

(Break)

Nick spent his nights doing homework or reading books. He studied the Marauders Map from the twins in great detail, making notes of the charms used and the places missing. Some nights, Nick brewed dreamless sleep potions, but after a few weeks, Nick was doubling the suggested dose and still waking in panicked night terrors.

In addition Nick avoided meditating again at all costs.

He couldn't stand the idea of making the oil spill any bigger than it already was. In class Nick simply sat with his eyes closed reciting potion ingredients and their purposes or the theory behind a charm or transfiguration. Mao could clearly tell Nick wasn't even trying but he never once said anything.

So the weeks went by and Nick's homework was all done on time - and to an Acceptable level. His writing and reading comprehension in English soared and a basic draft of the marauders map was forged, but the exhaustion wore Nick's patience thin, his concentration suffered.

Nick never brewed potions outside of class anymore, for fear of something exploding on him again and leveling him to the meddling mediwitch who would no doubt ask question that Nick had no intention of answering.

Tutoring was slow going.

Tom was book smart in ways that even Hermione seemed to be envious of. He found parselscript elementary and quickly gobbled up new books by the dozen, moving to complex tomes of ancient parselscript before Harry could even write a full sentence in the language without assistance.

His parselmagic, however, was nonexistent. Tom didn't have the patience for his own failure and Nick didn't have patience for his attitude. Harry took on the precarious position of Tom's tutor in magic despite the fact that Tom clearly hated Harry and Harry clearly trusted Tom as much as one would trust a half crazy and starving werewolf at midnight on the fullmoon.

Unfortunately, Tom didn't return the favor by tutoring Harry in Parselscript, so Nick had to battle his exhaustion and impatience to teach Harry the basics. Even though Nick knew Harry was progressing at a fairly average rate, it drove him crazy to go over basic concepts over and over again for Harry. Luckily, Harry needed very little instruction in parselmagic. He was a natural. It took only a try or two to master a new spell or concept.

There was no patience left after tutoring Tom and Harry for Nick to tutor the slytherins in potions, nor to bother being civil to his quidditch teammates. His tenuous friendships suffered.

After only a few restless nights in a row, Nick's dorm mates began leaving him to his own, dark thoughts, and a little after that even Luna opted to not be found for most of the day. Occasionally she came to watch Harry and Tom study but she was always dead quiet when she did. It was as if she was observing a herd of angry hippogriffs and trying very hard not to be noticed.

Ron and Hermione seemed equally uncomfortable around Nick when he was so quick to snap out some vile comment in parseltongue. The two might not have understood Nick's degrading comments, but Gryffindors could read body language quite well, despite any thoughts contrary of practically every other house. They knew Nick was testy, but Harry was _not _impressed with Nick's comments.

Still, Nick was... functional. He did his work. So it continued like that. Slowly he spent less time with people and what time he did spend became less enjoyable. Slowly he sank into darker thoughts and the rage of his reflection grew, and kept growing, and it was becoming unbearable.

One night, a few weeks before the final Ravenclaw quidditch game, Nick woke after having dreamt of destroying Hogwarts.

Slowly (and in great, bloody detail), Nick dreamed of the joy he got as he sent parselmagic curses and hexes barreling through the great hall. Heads rolled onto plates and unfamiliar faces of panic ran from him.

Nick walked with a spring in his step as he sent the swords of statues after students, as impaled bodies were left hanging from walls and ceilings. Dark shadows dripped from Nick's shoulders and tore at the stones of the ancient castle, bit by bit.

It crumbled around him, as Nick walked coolly though the halls. Screams of terror and voices begging for mercy sang like a chorus of ill-tuned instruments through the halls. All of it brought a smile to his face.

The quidditch pitch erupted in flames. The angry fire licked at passing students trying to fly their wooden brooms away from the reigning chaos.

All of the victims were faceless, nameless and completely unfamiliar, until Nick wandered past an abandoned classroom he often used for brewing.

There, he was met with the faces of Tom and Harry. Their argument about some annoying nuances of parselmagic fluttered into clarity. Nick scowled, and the roof crumbled down onto the two _infuriating _boys.

A cluster of obnoxiously loud redheads clustered near the blazing quidditch pitch. Nick flicked his wrist and the flames gobbled up the group without delay.

It wasn't until nothing but death and destruction surrounded Nick that his conscious mind seemed to catch up with his nightmare. And that was what this was - a nightmare.

Suddenly it was horror ripping at Nick's insides, leaving him with a cold emptiness and regret in his wake, chilling him from the inside out. The blood-soaked grass at Nick's feet froze over as he watched. Frost crawled its way along the ground, up splintered trees. It calmed the blazing flames and claimed the fallen remains of Hogwarts until the entire landscape glistened in a sheet of cold, austere ice.

When Nick woke, his skin was clammy and he shook with chills. Frost left the half managed sheets stiff and Nick's skin covered in a sheen of cold sweat .

Barely able to separate reality from illusion, Nick stumbled his way down to the common room.

Eddie looked up from some ancient tome he'd been engrossed in and stared at Nick.

"Mao, please, I need Mao" Nick's voice was hoarse and strained, as if he were the one who had been screaming for mercy the whole night.

Eddie rose silently and helped Nick through the cold corridors, mercifully silent, no questions asked. Thank god.

He left Nick to the unfazed DADA professor and without a word or any sort of reaction went back to his book in the Common room, as if all was normal.

(Break)

Mao sat Nick down on a pillow in the classroom. The bend in the trickling river sat at Nick's back and whispered calming lullabies in his ears as Mao took no time in diving into his mind. Nick followed the pull of thought with a twinge of unease.

"Why have you not cleaned?" Mao asked sharply. They stood at the edge of the forest, looking at the volcanic oil spill.

Nick looked took a half a step back towards the woods. "I tried. It only got worse."

"You are trying to fix the oil, or make it disappear?" Mao asked.

Nick was quite certain there was a right answer - and the factually correct answer wasn't it. Nick waited, silently hoping Mao would move on or draw his own conclusion.

"Now you are having bigger problem, hm? What I tell you at beginning? Hm? You cannot make bad thoughts just go away. You must find source and destroy it."

"How do I destroy oil?" Nick asked in annoyance. "What, do I set it on fire, hope it'll burn itself out?"

"This is not real oil, stupid boy, this is your mind. My mind, this could be large mountain or dying rose. Oil is not what you need to destroy. Anger - you need to control it."

"I don't even know what I'm angry _about,_" Nick didn't even bother trying to keep the childish whine from his voice.

"Don't know, or don't _want _to know?" Mao asked skeptically.

Nick looked out at his ragged reflection. "I'm not that angry," Nick said.

Mao nodded, "There is still mind link between you and Tom. Tom is angry, you are angry, and anger feeds anger. The link must be severed. Then, you must clean up the oil." Mao faded back into the real world.

A sharp tug pulled at the land around Nick's mind.

A large silver wire appeared suddenly from the center of the pond. It pulled up sharply as if it were a nasty weed being pulled from his mind. With a final, violent tug the wire ripped from Nick's mind and hurled itself out of existence.

Nick's mind trembled uneasily as the oil sucked its way into the empty hole left by the wire. It clamped in on itself and swirled around, getting smaller and smaller until it was back to being the size of an average bathroom mirror.

Nick moved out to the water and peered down at his dazed reflection. They made eye contact and Nick could suddenly hear the stunted and laboured breaths of his own rage.

"Why am I mad?" Nick asked the oil reflection.

"Mad, MAD! You're bloody well pissed off! And rightfully so," the reflection snapped. "These half-brained, ignorant, pompous, boggart-worshipping assholes are as useful as a half crippled pixie on acid!" Nick winced. "Grant! Grant is the worst of them." That name hit Nick harder than he would have liked. But still, he listened. "That fool, that lowlife drained the little faith in humanity you had left faster than a dementor drains happiness. How dare that Flobberworm eating Troll fucker threaten to relieve your 'great secret' as if it were a worse sin than skinning baby unicorns for the sheer hell of it. And Oliver the _prat _agrees with the wannabe ghoul! Why the hell would you put up with their black and white Yeti shit anyways!"

Nick couldn't think of an answer suitable enough for a rampage like this one. And still, the reflection continued to rage.

"Alexander, the great gutless wonder abandoned you here. He's sent, what? A stunning _two_ letters since you got here. Both around christmas. What the actual Hell! Mrs. Weasley has like a baker's dozen children and she still sends letters weekly! She even knits them bloody sweaters. In fact, she knits other people's kids' sweaters. Alex can't even bother to write two whole bloody lines once a month, yet he's been dragging you on his life or death 'find the three missing objects' hunt since you were old enough to cast a mother fucking half-formed shielding spell, _despite_ how many Gillyweed eating generations have given their lives for this useless, wannabe Disney pirate treasure hunt. We don't even know if the bloody objects in question still exist. Both your parents abandoned you to an uncaring aunt who barely bothered to feed you when you were a handful of years old, then not long after they get themselves killed, Alex comes to drag you along instead. It's sheer dumb luck you're still alive. And you bloody well know it."

"You'd be better off fucking the lot of them and finding a nice remote island to bugger off to."

"By myself?" Nick asked quietly

His reflection rolled its eyes, "Bring luna. At least the half-crazed nut job isn't trying to get you killed or trying to stone you for Orge Ass reasons like who you love or what language you speak."

Nick tried to think of a reasonable rebuttal, but nothing really came to mind.

"You going to let me out, or leave me in here while you take your pansy ass back to bed with your tail between your legs?"

"If I let you out, am I suddenly going to start shouting profanities or casting hexes at people I don't get on with?" Nick asked.

His reflection rolled it's eyes again, "No, you weasel brain, that isn't even possible. I'm a reflection of you after all. _You _are the one in control."

"Right... ok then" Nick grabbed hold of the oil as if it were a door and opened it wide.

Out stepped his reflection, just like that, and the oil slithered away into the shadows as if it had never been there at all.

Even with a scowling doppleganger standing not a foot away, the little pond area looked one hell of a lot less sinister than before.

"Right, so you'll just stay here," Nick said uneasily. He'd been hoping to get back to bed and was eager to have a few restful hours of sleep, for once.

"Yeah, I'll be here till you bother to deal with all your pent-up rage," the reflection agreed with a smirk. "Your problem mate, not mine."

Nick smiled halfheartedly and faded away, back into his body in Mao's classroom.

The professor was gone, and the classroom candles had burned down until they went out when the last of the wicks were used up.

Nick fumbled in the darkness, managing to make his way back to the common room in one piece, only tripping over his robes once.

Eddie was still reading in the common room, but he made no sign that he noticed Nick when he entered. Nick muttered a barely audible _goodnight _and headed to bed for a mercifully peaceful sleep.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The next day after DADA class, Professor Mao asked Nick to stay behind.

The mind master of a professor ended up holding a session with his student to help with a few extra issues clouding up Nick's thoughts.

This, of course, involved Mao poking around Nick's head in great detail, all while Nick trailed behind in the mindscape, reorganizing and cleaning up each potential problem Mao managed to find.

When the pair came across Nick's reflection - his still-somewhat-irritated self - reading poetry in the garden. Mao gave them both a very stern glare.

"Problem is not dealt with when there is no unity," Mao said pointedly to both Nick and his reflection.

"I'll deal with it soon" Nick promised, if only to get Mao off his back. "Professor, I was wondering about Tom ...".

Mao nodded in understanding, "Undoubtedly the boy is very angry. I shall talk and work with him after we are finished here"

Nick was happy enough to trust the mental well being of his cousin to someone else. After all, he was having more than enough troubles with his own thoughts. He wouldn't be of much use to someone else right at the moment.

...

That night, Nick went down to the parseltongue library - only to find that Luna was already sitting in one of the newly redone chairs, reading a huge bestiary book written in ancient runes.

Nick wasn't sure if the girl actually understood any of what was written in the book, but she seemed very intent on looking at the pictures, and she flipped through the pages at about the same speed Nick did when reading English.

"Harry let you in?" Nick assumed, watching Luna as she doggy-eared her book to look up.

The girl shook her head. Pigtails laced with devil's snare twirled around her head with the movement. "Tom was standing at the portrait, arguing about something. He let me in."

Nick frowned, "Do you think he's coming today?"

"No" Luna shrugged.

It was quiet for a while as Nick pulled out Transfiguration homework and began the long and arduous task of checking for spelling and grammar mistakes.

It was already well past dinner and Nick had finished most of his homework for the week but Harry and his entourage still hadn't shown up.

"Luna, you didn't happen to see Harry at all today, did you? I think it's a bit strange that he's not here" Nick looked around the library, as though Harry might magically pop up by the fireplace with a cheerful "hello!"

Nick still hadn't properly adjusted to Faer's impressive bit of casual magic that had brought the dilapidated library back to the height of its heyday. Nick was fairly certain he had never properly appreciated the ornateness of the library before. It really was splendid.

"I saw the golden Trio walking down to the gamekeeper Hagrid's house after dinner. I suppose they went to go for tea, or maybe to pull up the Wisspouts."

"Wisspouts?" Nick asked.

"Oh, they're little creatures that burrow under the ground and eat all sorts of root vegetables. I knew a woman who once lost a whole field of carrots that way" Luna said, a dreamy sort of look in her eye.

"Do you think you'll go into care of magical creatures when you're done with Hogwarts?"

Luna's eyes lit up and, somewhere behind all her faux naiveté, there loomed a very real smile. "Oh, one never truly knows these things. Mother always says, what was meant to be would be" Luna said airily, although the more Nick thought about it, the more he decided that Luna truly knew more than she let on, time and time again.

"Speaking of transfiguration homework..." Nick began smoothly enough.

"We weren't" Luna pointed out, re-visiting her book as she did.

Nick ignored her and went on, "Since Hermione, Ron, Cousin and Potter all aren't here, perhaps you would be willing to look over my essay for any obvious mistakes."

Luna smiled good-naturedly and held out a hand for the essay.

"Nick... when you have a group of birds it's a flock, not a herd" Luna murmured as she scratched in the correction several times over the parchment. "Oh, here you wrote fuck when I think you meant Flock. Fuck is um… well, it's a swear word." Nick turned a bright shade of red, but Luna read on as if it weren't anything to be embarrassed about. "Do you really think Tom will change this time around?" Luna asked offhand, still scratching away with the quill. Nick was taken aback by the sudden switch in conversation, not to mention Luna's unusual bluntness. "Also, it's twice now that you've spelt Avifors with A-V-I-P-H-O-R-S. There should be an f where the ph is: A-V-I-F-O-R-S." Luna kept reading the paper, marking little corrections here and there and adding punctuation when needed. "So, do you?"

"Do I what?" Nick asked, not following Luna at all

"Do you think Tom will change?" Luna paused this time to put the paper down.

Nick opened his mouth to defend his cousin, but the memory of all the pent up anger that Tom had accidently been feeding Nick came to mind. Professor Mao had said that the two pools of anger had multiplied with each other, but there still had to be a lot of it in Tom.

"I really don't know. I hope so, I guess. He is family."

Luna nodded thoughtfully. She picked the paper up and began marking again. "Then again, so is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named"

"He-With-Too-Many-Names isn't family."

"Tom and He-who-must-not-be-named share a soul."

"... I guess" Nick paused for a moment. "Do you think he'll change?"

Luna looked up. She met Nick's eyes with a ferocity he knew she had, but had never actually witnessed up close and personal. It was awe-inspiring, in a way. "I think he can."

"But will he?"

"Oh, one never truly knows these things. Mother always said, what was meant to be would be"

Nick snorted, "Will you be in care of magical creatures as a career, and will Tom Riddle change? Both get the same answer."

Luna smiled "Mother always said, nothing is certain until it is done, and sometimes not even then."

"I s'pose she was right." Nick nodded sagely, wholeheartedly agreeing with the idea.

"She usually was."

...

The next morning at breakfast two redheads hauled Nick over to sit at the Gryffindor table, with much aplomb and certainly no warning.

"You know, strictly speaking, you have to sit with your own house," Percy Weasley said matter-of-factly.

"Shove off, Percy," Fred made a shooing motion towards his older brother.

Percy scowled, and stood for a moment as if contemplating making a bigger deal out of it, but Oliver Wood grabbed his arm as he walked by and dragged Percy down to their table to sit.

Nick thought back on his conversation with Luna the night before. It wasn't really fair to say that Tom was unreasonably angry. After all, if Nick was being honest with himself - which he would rather not be - he'd admit that Wood's rejection left him bitter, even though it was several months later.

Wood, on the other hand, looked vaguely uncomfortable in Nick's company, but that was about it. Nick was probably overreacting and should definitely let water flow under the bridge or some such thing.

"Oi! You listening?" George asked.

"No" Nick answer automatically, "Er… sorry, what were you saying?"

"We were asking if you wanted to prank the Slytherin quidditch team with us. One of the first years accidentally packed the wrong box when they came back from winter break. They brought some weird muggle power that makes you really itchy and the silly little thing has been letting it go unused under their bed. Thought we might spell it into the slytherins' quidditch robes. It's bloody impossible to get it out once it's spelled in I recon."

"Tried to test it on Ronnikins, but alas, he set the jumper on fire when we gave it back."

"Reckon Mum'll be right pissed off. That was a new jumper, after all." George and Fred grinned at each other, viciously spiteful.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Well come on then," George gave Nick a friendly shove "What d'you say? Lee'll watch the pitch entrance, you guard the Castle entrance, and while you do that Fred and I will plant the powder."

"Alright, but if you get any of that powder on me, accidentally or on purpose, I will turn all your robes green and silver, and I'll use parseltongue to do it."

"Now, now Nickie. Fed and I wouldn't dream of pranking you…" George insisted, rather unconvincingly.

"Don't start. I had Hermione look over my charms homework after you edited it for me. She was kind enough to explain all inappropriate language you two added."

"Speaking of inappropriate language, Ron said that the slimy Slytherin was hanging around your little snake den," Fred interjected. His usual jovial air was gone, replaced with a look of intense dislike, which swirled behind his clouded expression. He and his twin looked over towards the young man in question.

Tom sat aloof from the other sixth year boys. He was half heartedly picking at a sparsely filled plate while he skimmed a book, which looked to be of questionable content based on the seedy-looking cover.

"We asked the-boy-who-has-too-many-hyphens why he was there, and Potter said you were teaching the ogre loving troll fucker." George added with a defensive snarl.

"He is family," Nick tiredly to point out. "Also, I know that's a bad word. Watch your mouth."

"He's the bloody Dark Lord," Fred hissed back, just as harshly, his voice barely louder than a whisper lest anyone might hear them.

Nick looked around the table but everyone else seemed to absorbed in their own conversations.

"Not yet, he isn't. He may change."

"YET. MAY," George and Fred recited in unison.

"Yes! May, as in, if everyone acts like he's the devil reincarnated, he might actually stand a chance at…"

"Merlin's saggy left ball, he is the devil reincarnated!"

"Well, then he is clearly bound to act like it. Luna thinks he will change if we let things run their course. Don't treat him like the Dark Lord... just treat him like Tom."

"Luna said that?" asked Fred.

"Tom Riddle tried to kill our baby sister, don't forget," George pointed out.

"Well, she meant that. But that's not quite was she said. I'm sure you've met Luna; she can be a bit hard to follow. And yes, I am aware of that. He tried to kill me, too."

"He believes in Pureblood supremacy," said Fred.

Nick tried to think of a good defence to that, but he couldn't think of anything. After all, he couldn't really deny it - he had no clue what Tom believed.

"He's a bloody Gaunt, too," Fred added.

George nodded. "We read up about them."

"You had Hermione or some such creature read up about them, you mean," Nick retorted with a laugh.

"It takes a lot of effort to convince someone to do your work for you." Fred answered haughtily, quirking up a proud eyebrow.

"Anyways," George jumped to get the conversation back on track, "Apparently the Gaunt family is full of bat-shit crazy people. Tom's Uncle was some mad, old loon who was imprisoned after nearly killing a Ministry Officer sent to investigate the use of magic on a muggle nearby."

"Apparently, Great Grandfather Gaunt wasn't any better. There were all sorts of rumours of him using Merope Gaunt, Tommy boy's mother, as some household slave."

"He enslaved his own daughter?!" Nick hissed in disgust, barely remembering to keep his voice down and not at all bothering to speak English.

"Not that the Weasley family has much to brag about. Still producing children like rabbits, I see," A thin voice behind the trio sneered, effectively bringing the prior conversation to a standstill.

Nick turned to see Tom Riddle hovering over the three. A good portion of the Gryffindor table was eyeing him warily. Tom wore a guarded expression, standing with the sort of grace befitting a prince.

A letter addressed to Tom in an alarming shade of purple was clutched loosely in Tom's hands.

Tom noticed where Nick eyes had landed; His hand tightened around the letter, just slightly. Just enough to be noticeable. "Dumbledore has requested my presence before class."

"What does that have to do with Itty-bitty Nicky?" Fred growled back.

Nick shook his head at the twins and motioned for Tom to head along before him, away from Gryffindor table and out of the great hall.

"Look, Firstly the Gaunt family is still a part of the Slytherin family, my family. Second, the Gaunt family is heavily tied to the French LeGaunt family, which my adoptive uncle happens to be the head of." Nick let the low, threatening tone in his voice do the rest of the talking.

Fred seemed to struggle with the concept but George took it all in stride. He shrugged it off. "still don't like 'em. Meet just before curfew at the pitch".

"Gallantly defending my honour?" Tom sneered when Nick caught up to him.

"Defending the family honour," Nick breezed past his cousin and down the hall to the stairs. He hardly bothered to pause his strides as he walked.

The rest of the trip up to the Headmaster's office was uncomfortably quiet. The conversations with Luna and the Twins ran on loop in Nick's head but he still couldn't decide how much he ought to trust his cousin even as they walked side by side up to face the headmaster together.

"Tom my boy, I see you got my letter" Dumbledore looked up from a large unorganized pile of parchment. A benevolent smile eased onto his face as Nick and Tom entered his office.

"I am not 'your' boy" Tom sneered.

"Of course, of course. My apologies Tom. Please have a seat. I see you brought your cousin again. Welcome, Nicholas."

Nick gently prodded Tom to the seats indicated by Dumbledore and put a forceful hand on his cousin's shoulder, making him sit.

"I wish to discuss your summer placement this year."

Tom stiffened.

"I spoke to Mr and Mrs Weasley, and they have agreed to have you come for the summer." Dumbledore spoke slowly, as if some lingering trepidation of his own were slipping out.

Tom's jaw clenched, but he said nothing.

The room steeped in silence as the seconds - perhaps minutes - ticked by.

A flash of flame and ice broke the tension.

Faer appeared directly on Tom's shoulder and Fawkes appeared on his perk to the side of Dumbledore.

"If that is everything" Tom asked his voice as cold as the air Faer brought with him.

"It is, unless..." Dumbledore peered over his half moon spectacles, "You have something you wish to discuss"

"No, Sir" Tom bit out the title as if he were fighting an imperious curse.

Nick stood silently and followed after his cousin down the stairs to the fifth floor.

"Tom, you know you can refuse him" Nick remained Tom, "You can always stay with one of the families"

Tom slowed his pace down the hall for a moment. "That isn't necessary."

"The offer is always open."

...

Nick made his way to his first class of the day, Charms, with the ever energetic Professor Flitwick.

Today they were working on the Carpe Retractum spell: a Pull charm to move huge stone blocks around the room.

"When would we ever need this," Marcus grumbled when his spell barely moved his large stone a mere centimeter.

Nick flicked his wrist and muttered, "Carpe Retractum." The stone Marcus was using to moved gracefully floated over to Nick, stopping perfectly on the black circle indicated for the stone.

"Show off," Hugo muttered from behind Nick. Nick turned to see Eddie grinning playfully at him.

"It would have been nice to have this spell in Egypt." Nick said to Marcus. The boy raised a questioning eyebrow. "I was tasked to move six boulders slightly smaller than these ones," Nick motioned to the boulders in the classroom, "several meters to hold up a door. It would have been nice to have a Latin spell to use." Nick left out the fact that he could have used Parseltongue if it didn't mean awakening a very angry snake that was apparently guarding the scrolls that Alex wanted to steal.

"You moved them by hand?" Hugo asked in surprise.

Nick nodded his head, "I used logs and rope to make it easier but it still took forever." Nick rubbed absently at his shoulders.

"Well since not everyone gets into the shenanigans you get into Nick, when would normal people use this sort of spell?" Marcus whined.

Eddie moved two boulders at once into a single circle. "You could use it for moving furniture around the house" He pointed out.

Marcus frowned, "Why would a man need to know how to do that?"

Eddie, Hugo and Neck all froze acutely aware of the fact that Cho Chang and her tiny ice dragon were within hearing distance.

"Marcus Belby, you are absolutely atrocious," Cho said as she moved a large stone to the circle Eddie had just filled. Then she levitated the stone on top of the others.

"You're bloody lucky that Hermione Granger or Millicent Bulstrode didn't hear you, they'd've both ripped you into little strips for that comment," Hugo muttered, eyeing Marcus.

Marcus shrugged it off uncaringly.

"I don't see what the big deal is. There are roles for a Man to play and roles for a Women…"

"Marcus, just stop talking before Cho decides to have her dragon freeze you. Or before one of the other girls decides to go bowling with you and use you as a pin," Eddie said sharply.

"Bowl? as in Bowler hat?" Marcus looked at Eddie, but the boy just shrugged. They both looked at Nick but Nick was already packing his things to head out. Class was over and Professor Flitwick had just written the homework on the board for them to copy down.

After classes and dinner, Nick went to the Slytherin library to start his homework for the day. Luna, Harry, Hermione and Ron were already there but no one was working very hard.

Work didn't really increase over the night as Nick was more occupied with debating over his cousin and planning for the pranks the twins had planned.

Nick had just left the library and was heading to the pitch when he heard the muttered whispered of the twins from one of the boys bathrooms.

"Just use a cutting spell" George said.

"It'll fly right back at us" Fred pointed out.

What on earth were those two up to? Nick wondered to himself. He stepped towards the bathroom door, but did he really want to know? Steeling himself for the worst, Nick walked in.

The twins were staring at a bathroom seat from just inside of a cubical, both deep in thought. Um..?

"Hey, Nickie," They said in unison without turning to look at him.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked not bothering with pleasantries.

Fred turned and grinned. "Ginny needs cheering up. We said a few years ago we'd send her a toilet seat buuut we never had a chance to. Thought it might cheer her up if we got one now"

"Might want to clean it first" Nick snorted.

"If we can get it off" George grumbled.

Nick stepped up and looked down at the seat. "You tried just unscrewing it?" Nick asked

The twins eyes lit up. George transfigured a screwdriver for a toilet paper trole and Fred used a near by tiny garbage can. Clearly the twins had been practising transfigurations quite thoroughly to help with their animagus forms.

"She might appreciate it if you got her a basket of bathroom things to go with it. Mostly joke stuff but with a few things, like bath balms, she could actually use" Nick said mildly.

Fred looked up towards Nick, "You got an idea where we could get that sort of things on short notice?"

"Yes, I suppose I could brew a few somethings for your dear little sister. I do owe her since it was my deranged cousin who attacked her."

"So you admit that he is deranged -"

"Evil to the core-"

"Bloodthirsty,"

"Megalogmanic -"

"sociopath-"

"With a long history of violence?" The twins finished together with a dramatic flair.

Nick snorted, unimpressed with the display. "No I don't. My cousin is a bit ..."

"Heartless-" George offered.

"Socially challenged" Nick cut in, only mildly irritated with the twins.

"Understatement of a century mate. He's down right mad" Fred cast a couple of cleaning charms on the toilet seat and shoved it in the bag George was carrying over his shoulder. The twins lead Nick down the hall and towards the quidditch pitch. A couple of times they had to stop behind statues or duck into abandoned classrooms but they meet with Lee without much of a delay.

Lee Jordan materialized out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of Nick but not fazing Fred or George in the least.

"Bloody hell, Lee," Nick wheezed trying to quietly regain control of his breathing.

Lee grinned maliciously, "Serves you right after that one time you snooped around Flint's office during a detention.

"You got the powder?" Fred asked Lee.

Lee fished into his robes and pulled out an unmarked bag of white powder.

"Brilliant" George and Fred nipped the powder and headed off towards the slytherin changing rooms.

"The kid just gave you a bag of itching powder?" Nick asked quizzically.

Lee looked down at Nick as if he'd just suggested the earth was flat. "Of course not. I tipped over the container and put some flour down on the ground to look like it had been split then took as much itching powder as I wanted." Lee explained slowly as if talking to particularly dull first year.

Nick scowled, "He would notice though" Nick argued.

"Would you get close enough to a pile of split itching powder to see if it really makes you itch or if it just flour?" Lee asked rhetorically.

The answer was an obvious no, unless of course the twins were unaccounted for. But it was Lee who got the itching powder so the twins were probably doing something very public and very obvious so as to have a reasonable alabi. Clever.

"I'll take the pitch entrance, you take the main entrance" Lee said heading around towards the change rooms. Nick followed obediently. and waited for the twins to finished.

No one came and the group left unseen towards the castle. Lee ditched them to go visit some Hufflepuff girl he was trying to cort.

"Poor thing, never going to get the girl" Fred said sadly.

Nick watched Lee meet up with a small group of 'puffs. The group was friendly enough but it was clear that none of the girls seemed all that … keen on Lee. Nick had thought that Lee had some history with Oliver Wood though. Maybe the girls were a cover, or maybe Nick was reading more into Lee's and Oliver's relationship then there really was.

"Which one is the one he wants?" Nick asked.

Fred looked at the group and shrugged. "I only know the name is Andy. I don't know any of the girl's names over there."

"Probably the one with the ponytail, and purple flower in her hair," George guessed as they walked further down the corridor, out of sight.

"Speaking of tails, we can change all but our main bodies into our animagus form," Fred said, sounding more excited. "Internal organs are a real bitch." Fred twitched his head a bit like a dog shaking water off his head. When he had coyote ears sticking out from his hair.

Nick nodded. "I can turn my skin scaly on command... but I only managed to fully change that one time with the snowball fight." Nick said. "Hopefully we'll have the whole thing down before the end of term, we'll have to trade the map and the book back".

"What have you been doing with the map anyways?" Fred asked.

George grinned, "sneaking off to meet innocent, naive young girls?"

"Plotting world domination through the 'subtle science and exact art of potion-making'?" Fred grinned widened

"Neither, I'm trying to make my own. It's coming along alright. I've got the charms put on the parchment mostly figured out, but it will take a bit longer to figure out how to copy the whole Castle with out doing it by hand. Even if I do it by hand, I don't know how to copy the moving staircases or some of the vanishing doors."

"Still oftly impressive, wanna make us a copy?" The twins asked in their unison like well trained parrots.

Nick shot the twins an appraising look.

"'Suppose we could make it worth your while." Fred said thoughtfully.

Nick nodded along, "I want a favor. Something I can call in later."

"No killing though," George clarified as an afterthought.

"Unless it's Snape"

"Right, Snape we could …"

Nick waved off the offer, "I get along with professor Snape."

The twins shrugged "If you change your mind.." The offer dangled in the air.

Nick ignored it, in favor of heading towards the staircase.

The twins, to Nick's surprise, followed. Snippets of their conversation wafted up to Nick "Could always nick a leprechaun..." "might need three car barriers…" "...of the Headmaster's private collection", "least I heard he died trying, worth a go I reckon".

Nick was positive they were making the whole conversation up just to annoy him.

The trio arrived at the base of the moving staircase to find Percy, Ginny and Ron huddled rather obviously to one side.

"Leave off Percy, Gins had a bad enough weekend without your meddling" Fred called over to the shadowy corner.

Percy and Ginny looked up in surprise. Percy looked outraged, Ginny was shaking to the bone. Ron didn't seem to be fairing better than his sister, thought he tried to look like he was.

In a flash the twins were at their sister's side chastising Percy for harassing her. "Even a stick in the mud like..".

"Mother sent a letter," Percy bit out. The offending document was waved like a peace flag between Percy and the twins.

Neat, scrawling handwriting flashed past Nick's field of vision, but it went by too quickly to read. Something about Percy behaving himself. Which was odd, since Percy was the sort of bloke who memorized the rule book backwards and forwards, and perhaps upside down.

"It's about the summer…" Percy trailed off, an ominous warning in his voice as he handed over the letter for the twins to read.

Nick took a half a step back. He had a pretty good idea what that letter was about, but the moment itself felt too private, too confidential.

The Weasleys as a whole seemed strangely vulnerable and it seemed inappropriate for Nick to watch as an outsider. Harry might have fit in, but not Nick.

Slowly Nick backed away towards the staircase. "She wants that- that crazy psychopath living in our house!" George wailed in outrage. A cacophony of 'shh!' quieted the voices to a dull whisper again.

Fred suggested bringing Uncle Octavius to come stay for the summer. George agreed, after all, surely a vampire could keep Tom in line.

Percy was against it, claimed he'd rather be living in a troll cave than with a vampire. It was bad enough he might have a sociopath in the house.

That comment got Ron on Percy's case. Valiantly, Ron defended the long lost Weasley uncle.

On the conversation went, as Nick ascended the stairs towards the Ravenclaw tower.

...

The next afternoon, Luna dragged Nick down from the common room to the dining hall to eat Lunch earlier than normal. She gave no explanation, but when they arrived they came across Cho showing off her tiny dragon.

With a burst of childish excitement the little dragon let out a huge breath. Tiny snowflakes appeared and settled onto the table, only to melt away in seconds.

Girls and boys from every house and year seemed to melt, too, cooing in awe and excitement.

Mao was bound to see a sudden sharp increase in orders. Which he could easily accommodate being as he was currently a guest professor. He really is a clever man Nick thought to himself.

Faer was in bird form perched on the table watching like a proud parent as Cho's dragon froze more snowflakes.

"Aren't you supposed to be with Tom?" Nick asked Faer as he settled down at the table.

Faer let out a sharp cawing noise. Which likely was his answer but Nick had no idea what it meant.

"Do you think Dumbledore will add mini dragons to the officially allowed pets?" One of the ravenclaws asked.

Cho seemed to think about it for a moment, "No probably not. It will likely just be added to the 'pending approval' list. Like Runespores and such."

Nick picked up on the conversation with enthusiasm. "You can have a magical snake as a pet?"

Marcus snorted, "See, you really are a Slytherin disguised as a Ravenclaw."

"And you're a Hufflepuff." Eddie nodded in agreement.

Marcus growled at his dorm mate and sent a stinging hex, which Eddie ducked. It hit Hugo square between the eyes.

"Oi! watch it!"

"Look who it is," some girl from sixth years whispered sharply. All of the girls seemed to look at the figure slowly approaching the Ravenclaw table. It was Tom Riddle, dressed to the nines. His eyes cast over the table, lingering momentarily on Faer.

With a graceful dignity befitting only royalty, Faer glided over to Tom's shoulders and the two waltzed out of the great hall. A trail of swooning girls were left in his wake.

"Too bad he's taken," Cho said sullenly, "I heard he's dating some girl in Slytherin. They're quite the pair. I forget her name though. Grant Page, you dated her for a while. What's her name?"

If only looks could kill.

Grant seemed to be seething in his seat. A violent volcano of volatile emissions waiting to be unleashed at the next hapless victim.

"Grant, Nick, quidditch practice starts in like two minutes. Hurry up!" a voice called near the end of the table.

Nick winced and hoped that Grant's fury was taken out on the beaters and not Nick or the other chasers.

Like a man walking to the gallows, Nick followed the growling mass of anger that was Grant down to the quidditch pitch.

Nick was cheered up considerably when he passed three Slytherins leaving their lockers, itching their arms incessantly.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

After dinner that night, Nick entered the library to find Luna seated cross legged in front of the fireplace. Salazar was holding up flashcards of images and Luna was mimicking the sound he was making.

"_Apple," _Salazar read the first flash card aloud.

Luna looked at the card and mimicked the hissing."_Apple," _she repeated.

Salazar flipped to the next card, "_Orange."_

"_Oak tree." _

"_Or-an-ge."_

"_Or-an-ge."_

"_Orange."_

"_Orange," _Salazar looked pleased when Luna appeared to have mastered the new word.

On they went, working on new vocabulary as Nick put his books down, organizing Harry and Tom's parselscript work. With that taken care of, he pulled out his own charms essay. May the gods have mercy on him.

Luna was practicing the flash cards with Salazar's prompting when Harry, Ron and Hermione meandered into the library.

"Luna-" Hermione looked ready to berate the curious Luna, but Harry cut in.

"I didn't know you were learning parseltongue."

Hermione turned to Harry, eyes wide as saucers. "She _wasn't _really… was she?" she asked. "I thought parseltongue could only be inherited? The book I was reading, 'Magical Blood and All Things Inherited,' it _said _that-"

"You can _learn _parseltongue, to a certain degree," Salazar's portrait above the fire place explained patiently. "Human parselmouths can communicate with one another, even if one or both parties did not inherit the ability. To use parselmagic, however, you need to either inherit this ability, or have a basilisk grant it to you."

Luna tilted her head to the side. "Could you get it from the basement?"

Nick interpreted this as Luna asking if Andrus could offer her the rare ability to speak to snakes. It was an excellent question, and Nick himself was curious to know the answer. Salazar, however, looked completely lost.

"Could… _could_ Andrus grant Parselmagic?" Nick asked Salazar.

Salazar looked thoughtful, for a moment. When it seemed he finally understood the context, he nodded with enthusiasm. "Ah, yes!" he said, "He could, but I would advise learning the hard way first. There are less risk this way"

"Risk?" Hermione's head tilted left.

Ron seemed to sense Hermione's over-enthusiasm for the new subject and was trying to sneakily leave the library before the witch roped him into another class.

"Yes, yes…" Salazar mused, "it can be very risky to be granted a new magical ability if you have very little exposure to it first: short term memory loss, heavy nose bleeds, comas, loss of magic and even loss of life are all potential side effects when there recipients is unprepared."

Ron strategically moved Nick between Hermione's peripheral vision and the door.

"If we were to learn parseltongue first, though, then we could be granted the ability without any real danger," Hermione insisted.

Salazar nodded.

"Could we join you then, Mr. Slytherin... sir?"

"We?" Salazar asked curiously.

"Yes, Ron and … Harry, where did Ron go? Don't shrug at me, you were standing right beside him. Honestly! Very well, may _I_ join your lessons?"

"I don't see why not," Salazar answered, a twinkle in his eye.

(Break)

The rest of the evening was spent with noses to the grindstone.

Tom never showed up for his lessons, but Nick was secretly glad, since he still wasn't quite sure how he felt about his cousin.

...

After finishing his Charms essay, Nick picked up the long-discarded book on patronus charms. He'd been wanting to get back to that. Better late than never, right? First he tried in parseltongue, and then the one in Latin, but both produced a very dull glow from the tip of his wand that had very little effect, unless it was used as a reading light.

"What was that?" Hermione asked. She sat off to the side, near Salazar and Luna. The second year was being tested by the portrait on the words they had covered over the course of the evening.

Nick gave a frustrated sigh as his patronus fizzled out rather spectacularly. Again. "It is a patronus spell, it keeps all sorts of dark creatures and demons at bay."

"Well if you ask me, I don't think you're doing it right," Hermione said, a little haughtily.

Nick let out a string of derogatory slurs in parseltongue.

Harry, playing the role of 'defender of a lady's honor,' punched Nick in the arm.

"Harry!" Hermione scolded.

"Expecto Patronum!" Luna cast her spell just then. A mild blue, watery mist appeared at the tip of her wand. It wasn't anything to write home about, but it was definitely more impressive than what Nick had produced moments ago. Nick frowned.

"I think you're supposed to flick your wand more," Hermione said, only half-watching.

Harry raised his wand and gave it a try. "Expecto Patronum." _His_ was even brighter than Luna's, but it was still a tiny light in comparison to what it should be. The spell description in the book said it could create a powerful shield when done right, and it takes the form of an animal when done exceptionally well.

"It says, 'concentrate on a happy or cheerful memory to power the spell,' Nick translated from the parselscript passage.

"So it's a bit like when you do parselmagic?" Harry asked Nick.

Nick shrugged. Honestly? He hadn't really thought of it that way.

Nick tried the parseltongue spell again. This time, he tried to line the path that his magic took with all his favorite memories. Apparently, his magic was wholly uninspired, since the spell created a dull glow _slightly _brighter than last time, but still not as bright as Luna's or Harry's.

"Expecto Patronum," Hermione tried. Hers came out brighter than everyone's but... still not quite shield-worthy. More like a small disk at the end of her wand.

Still, seeing an almost right version was inspiring. The portrait of Slytherin add bits of advice as the group continued to practice the spell. By the time Hermione realised it was well past curfew, everyone but Nick could produce a shield and Harry's shield was beginning to take on a shape. Nick however could only produce a flimsy looking disk no bigger than a dinner plate.

Luna and Nick said their goodbyes to to Hermione and Harry at the staircase. Nick didn't get all the way back to his dorm though. He got distracted by two familiar voices whispering in an empty classes.

"You go ahead, I'm just going to check this out" Nick said.

Luna nodded solemnly, "Infested with Mugglewops".

"Mugglewop…? never mind, yeah. sure. Very dangerous. Anyways, you just go back and I'll catch up"

"Alright Nick" Luna wandered off down the hall.

Nick peered into the classroom and sure enough, Fred and George Weasley had pushed together several desk and laid out several maps and charts.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked as he approached the table.

Two wands sprang from nowhere, waving in front of Nick's face. "Bloody _hell _mate-"

"Thought you were an attacker of some kind!" The twins wiped imaginary sweat from their brow and turned back to the disarray on the desks.

"What is this for?:" Nick asked, curious and still a little thrown off guard. "Upside down charm, sticky charm, are you trying to reverse gravity in one of the halls?" It was a clever enough idea - though any of the girls that wore skirts to class probably wouldn't think so.

"Don't know what gravity is, but we're trying to make the people walk on the ceiling." George explained.

Nick thought back to the times Octavius had set halls to do that very thing. Perhaps the Weasley family were distant relatives of a trisker god, Nick mused.

"Octavius has done that to the halls of the a couple of Alex's manors before. You could ask him"

The twins looked positively giddy with the idea. "Think we could borrow the map for a couple days?" Fred asked.

Nick could hear in the twins' voices that they very much intended to sneak off-grounds to meet up with their estranged uncle.

Nick pulled out the map from his bag and handed it over gingerly, "I need it back when you're done. I'm not finished using it. I still can't figure out the charms"

"Why not look in the restricted section?" asked George.

"I asked McGonagall, but she said 'absolutely not.' I thought about asking Professor…"

The twins looked positively tickled. Future plots blazed behind their eyes.

Nick wasn't sure what he had said that set the twins off but he wasn't about to wait around and find out. He crept back out the classroom before the twins could rope him into losing himself several hundred house points and getting detention for who knows how long.

The sound of someone walking down the hall towards the Ravenclaw common room caught Nick's attention. He spread up his steps so he could round the corner and catch a glimpse of who it was, thinking maybe it was Luna. It was a group of NEWT level Ravenclaws coming back from the library in a vicious argument on who owned what version of "Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them."

It looked to be on the brink of turning into a full blown duel, so Nick turned around and wandered in the other direction.

He wandered up and down the staircase and past sleeping portraits, avoiding anyone who might send him off to bed with a detention note.

Eventually, Nick found himself back outside the parseltongue library. No surprise there. Salazar looked less than impressed, but he allowed Nick back in.

Nick doused the fire and headed down to Andrus's chambers.

The great serpent hissed out a warm welcome when he saw Nick arrive.

"_Hey Andrus,"_ Nick echoed in greeting. Crawling up on the great scaly beast, Nick moved until he was curled on the scales by Andrus head. Andrus let out a long soothing hiss. Nick relaxed into Andrus's body "_Still angry," _Andrus commented, but not accusingly.

"_Yeah, I guess so. I'm trying not to be, but it's not that easy. How do you stop being angry? I didn't even realize how angry I was until Tom's anger exacerbated my own."_

"_These things take time. You need to change how you think about others. You need to take time to forgive mistakes of other and accept your own short comings"_ Andrus body rumbled gently.

"_Tom was angry, too. Angrier than me, I think. What does that mean about him? Or about me? Tom originally turned into a raging sociopath with a long, long history of violence. If he is still angry now, does that mean he will still become Voldemort?" _

"_Do you think there is a creature out there that has not at some point fallen into the throes of deep anger?" _Andrus's voice had a bit of a lilt to it, as if he were talking to a child.

Nick had a hard time envisioning Headmaster Dumbledore or Professor Flitwick falling prey to such such unbridled rage. In general though, yes, most people got deeply angry, at some point or another. That was only human. Tom's anger, however, had led him to some extremes that no normal person should ever consider.

"_But Tom and I are angier…" _Nick said uneasily.

"_Anger will only rule you if you allow it. It is a part of you, it is controllable. You need only to tame it. When you start to feel angry, ask yourself why, list the things you are grateful for, recall favorite memories. You need to deconstruct that anger." _

Nick sat silently on the coils of Andrus and let the soothing breathing lull him into a haze.

"_Why can't I manage a patronus?"_ Nick asked, in a voice barely more than a whisper.

Andrus let out a long, soft hiss. "_If I remember, a patronus needs a positive memory? Perhaps you are too guarded to let yourself dwell on positive emotions. You are too quick to look for what will go wrong."_

"_Something always does,"_ Nick said lazily.

Andrus didn't disagree.

"_Perhaps you need to practice letting yourself be happy, without looking for ways that something might go wrong."_

Nick hummed in agreement. It was late, and he was very comfortable curled on the coils of the great serpent. He didn't need to go back to the common room just yet...

...

"Nick what are you doing?!" some random Ravenclaw fifth year dashed into the common room, robes all a flutter, panic ebbing from them in waves. "our match starts in like five minutes!"

"Match?" Nick asked in honest confusion

The strange boy's panic morphed into a wild combination of confusion and something bordering on rage, "_Match_?!" he screeched, "Quidditch match! You've been on the team all year! Hurry up, we're against Gryffindor. If we win, we win the cup. Come _ON!_"

Nick wasn't at all panicked to get down to the pitch.

He'd been avoiding practice for several weeks now, as had most of the rest of the team. There hadn't been a proper practice since … well a while ago, anyways.

Steeling himself for a crushing defeat, Nick dashed down to the pitch, trailing behind the odd fifth year Ravenclaw. Nick was probably supposed to know their name, but to be honest he was just surprised to discover that they were on the same team.

Before Nick was even semi-changed into uniform, the Ravenclaw captain cornered him, and started in on an elaborate, very confusing speech that was, apparently, meant to be motivational.

Nick paid no attention whatsoever.

On the contrary, he tried to inch away from the crazy captain in lieu of dressing in the rest of his quidditch robes.

"You'll do us proud, yeah!" Someone hollered from the other side of the changing rooms.

"Er...sure," Nick said, with as about as much confidence as a blind man agreeing to drive a race car. Someone cheered at his words. "Though... I think the twins have been practicing a lot of crazy moves, lately, so you should really be focusing on them!" Nick called back. That was a total guess.

But Nick was certain both Weasleys had been practicing their wandless magic and their transfiguration. It would stand to reason that the boys would apply what they had learned it to quidditch, if it meant winning the game without breaking… too many rules.

If it came down to it, Nick was certain he couldn't outcompete the Weasley twins. They had their own, unbeatable brand of crazy that no amount of training could withstand.

It didn't help that Nick wanted desperately to avoid the Gryffindor quidditch captain, Oliver Wood. Nonetheless, Nick followed his teammates out to the pitch, mounted his broom and took to the sky for the final, official game of the season.

Sure enough, Nick had barely gotten possession of the quaffle when Fred knocked the bludger towards him. Nick might have been able to duck the crazy black ball, had Fred not managed to transfigure the bludger into a man-eating, flying bat the size of a large dog.

Nick managed to avoid the beast with a quick duck down, but one of the female gryffindor chasers hit him on her way up, and took possession of the quaffle. Bugger all.

With a mad dash to the left, Nick avoided the transfigured bat, but the Gryffindor was already on the other side of the pitch. Nick managed a wandless spell, transfiguring the bludger into a hippogryph before sending it back towards the Gryffindor chaser.

Much to Nick's enjoyment the Gryffindor chaser nearly had a heart attack when the offended hippogryph chased them down. Ravenclaw took possession once again.

Nick laughed off several excellent attempts to unseat him before transfiguring the quaffle into a dart and getting it through the hope, transferring it back at the last second.

10 points to Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor had possession again. Nick headed towards the quaffle to intercept it, when something hit him square in the back of the head. The hit sent him reeling back towards the ground. Nick looked up, just in time to see that the twins banishing and summoning their clubs at people. Which was… not strictly speaking in the rulebook.

"_Bleeding arseholes,"_ Nick muttered under his breath.

Nick sent a wandless expelliarmus at Fred, who ducked the spell just in time. Much to Nick's surprise, Fred leapt off his broom and landed on the back of George's. Surprisingly, the broom held, just before it transfigured into a massive ridgeback dragon.

There was a stunned silence, just for a moment, before chaos ensued.

Gryffindor scored several times before the Ravenclaws managed to cancel the spellwork on Fred's broom.

Things had just barely calmed down when George's broom began emitting a strange fog from the tail end. Nick tried to vanish it as it descended upon him. It made no difference.

He couldn't see anything. He could _feel_ the too-close-for-comfort wind breezing by as others zipped past him- he could _hear _Lee Jordan announcing the quick succession of scores by Gryffindor.

There simply wasn't anything Nick could do about it.

_Finally_, one of the older Ravenclaws managed to figure out a way to disperse the fog, just in time to see Harry make a swan dive off his broom to catch the snitch. Oliver and George had a net instantly appear between their brooms to catch the daredevil seeker before hand could connect with snitch.

The Ravenclaw captain looked unequivocally distraught when they all landed. Just about everyone else on the team looked physically exhausted, but far more mentally focused on upcoming exams than on their crushing defeat by Gryffindors.

Before either team could leave for their locker rooms, Madame Hooch appeared.

"I've never seen so much spellwork on the field," she seethed, looking like an angered falcon. "Never, in _all _my days - and I was flying before you lot were even a twinkle in your father's eyes! I'll be speaking to the headmaster about this. From now on, no spells on the field. I can't have it. I _won't _have it." A stern, gloved finger was raised, shaking violently in the direction of two particular Gryffindors. "Madame pomfrey will have my head if she hears what happened to day! Now off with you lot! Go and wash up, you smell worse than a Grindylow in labour."

(Break)

Nick managed to get two steps out the Ravenclaw change rooms, when a couple of redheaded snakes grabbed hold of him and dragged him up the the Gryffindor common room.

A party was already in full swing, one to rival the Christmas party. This time though, there were no other houses present. In an effort to make Nick not stand out, Fred shoved what appeared to be one of Percy's jumpers over Nick's head. George shoved a drink in his hand right after.

Nick promptly passed it on to the first hand he bumped into, for two reasons: One, the last time he was drunk it had _not _ended well, and two, a drink given by one of the twins was definitely not to be trusted. Not in any sense of the word.

Nick managed to duck out from the twins' grasp when a cluster of girls wandered by.

He let the crowd direct him around the common room. Eventually, he found a couch that had been hung from the ceiling, probably to keep it out of the way. Nick climbed up, only to find that two people were already sitting on it. Neither one of them was someone that Nick had expected to find here.

"You're welcome to join us!" A Hufflepuff sixth year said, and moved over a bit to make room for Nick. Nick gingerly let himself onto the couch, perching on the armrest.

"How did you two get in?" Nick asked.

Tom Riddle smirked, "Wasn't very difficult. I had one of the fifth year Gryffindor girls invite us."

Nick nodded. Out of the corner of his eye, Nick noted the exasperated look the Hufflepuff shot Tom.

"Did you watch the game, then?" Nick asked.

"Indeed," Tom confirmed, paying very little attention to his two companions. His eyes raked the rest of the room, categorizing and contemplating everyone who attended the party.

Plotting something, Nick deduced uneasily.

"You guys did great, pity you lost, though," the Hufflepuff said. "Tom was cheering for you," he added as an afterthought.

Nick shot Tom a skeptical look, silently asking his cousin, 'how did a random Hufflepuff sixth year know _Anything _about Nick? and did the ultraconservative Tom Riddle actually _Cheer _for Nick?"

Tom sent back a withering glance. No, ultraconservative Tom Riddle does not _Cheer. _He was, however, hoping that Ravenclaw would not suffer such a crushing defeat.

Nick shrugged remorselessly. After all, he wasn't really _that _committed when it came to Quidditch.

Tom's eyebrow twitched irritably. Quidditch might not mean anything, but surely house pride mattered?

Nick looked at the Gryffindor sweater he was wearing, to the nondescript black robes Tom was wearing. The Hufflepuff boy was the only one repping house pride right now.

Tom scoffed. He was plotting, wasn't that much obvious?

Nick's eyes narrowed. It _was _obvious, and it undoubtedly concerned Nick a great deal.

What was Tom up to?

Tom smirked knowingly. He was enjoying the slow reactions from Nick, loved watching the boy stew in his ignorance.

Nick shrugged again and turned his attention to the dance floor, disconnected from the rest of the common room by magic as it floated in the very center of the room, just above the makeshift bar. Several overturned crates floating at a height above the ground acted as the stairs from the carpeted common room floor, up to the glowing, floating, tiled dance area. A few rather inebriated dancers were constantly being pulled back onto the platform and away from the edge by those less drunk and more aware of the dangers.

Surely soon, someone would fall and hurt themself? Ideally, Nick wondered if anyone had thought to at least put up some cushioning charms, just as a precaution.

"How did you _do _that?" the hufflepuff boy asked.

"Do what?" Nick asked in surprise.

"That whole 'talking without saying anything' business. It was like you and Tom had a whole conversation without uttering a single word. I'm not stupid, I know what I saw."

"As I keep saying, Rolf, it isn't about what people say it is about how they act."

"Eighty percent of communication between humans is in the non-verbal," Nick confirmed. Choosing to ignore any more of what the Hufflepuff had to say, Nick turned his attention to his Slytherin cousin instead.

"Have you made summer plans yet?" Nick asked, "Or are you going to stay with …" he nodded towards the twins, who were, at present, pouring a beer without relent down poor Percy Weasley's throat, laughing uproariously when he coughed most of it back up.

Tom looked disgusted at the drunken antics. "I have started to make arrangements".

"Let me know if you need anything. I have contacted the other heads of house, by the way. They have asked - unofficially, mind - if you want to do a Christmas shindig next year, to do introductions and such."

"Sounds intriguing," Tom murmured absently, eyes still following random people around the room. It was rather unsettling.

"There are at least twenty-three people not in Gryffindor here. Only Rolf and Beeswing are wearing their house robes. Why is that?"

"Because a Ravenclaw would seem rather nerdy to a party and a Slytherin wouldn't be trusted in the common room," Rolf explained, patiently, as if explaining basic social cues and hierarchies was commonplace.

Nick looked around the room, trying to spot all twenty-three, but he got as far as six when he caught the eyes of Oliver Wood, none-too-subtly checking him out.

God and Merlin help him.

"I am _not _drunk enough for this," Nick muttered under his breath as he tried to look away, but he could still feel the eyes of the Gryffindor captain on him.

A beer appeared out of thin air by Tom, which was then handed to Nick .

"Tom!" Rolf tried to grab the drink before Nick could, but Nick had the cap off and had chugged the first half before Rolf's arm had even made it halfway there.

"Third years shouldn't be drinking," Rolf said uneasily as he watch Nick polish off the last of the beer, before casually chucking it into a nearby pile of bottles.

"I'm going to go get wasted, just so you know if you don't see me tomorrow at dinner. Go ahead and send out a search party," Nick said sarcastically as he clambered down back to floor level.

Several shots were shoved in his hand on his way over to Oliver. He politely downed the first two, only wincing once, and handed off the last three to a few students dancing by.

He had only intended to tell the sixth year off, nothing more, but with Oliver's gaze intense and the alcohol in Nick's veins thick and roaring in his ears, Nick followed instead of spoke.

He found himself being led up the stairs to the boy's dormitory, away from the crowd and the noise. t Oliver was watching constantly, to see if Nick was still following.

The two of them ended up in an abandoned dormitory room. The door was shut. The sounds of the party had dulled to a hum in their ears. Neither spoke.

When the door closed, Oliver was there, crowding in Nick's space. Bloody teenage hormones and alcohol were a cocktail for bad decisions and strange nights, yet here they were. Bad decisions were all part of the human experience, right?

The air between them seemed to ebb and flow, pushing them closer as the boys moved in tandem.

Any protests that Nick might have made were drowned out as Oliver claimed his mouth with his own. Both were tipsy, sure, but neither were as drunk as they had been the time before. _Last _time, they'd been absolutely bladdered. This time, it was a buzz. A pleasant sort of buzz.

They were still aware enough to know that they could walk away, _should_ walk away, but neither made a move to stop as hands slipped under shirts and belts were fumbled with before being slipped off. Clothes were kicked in the general direction of Oliver's four poster bed, as Nick and Oliver stumbled towards the open curtains. Bad decision were all part of the human experience.

(Break)

...

Somewhere around three in the morning, a furious McGonagall sent the last of the party goers off to bed with detention slips for the remainder of the year. Whatever silencing charms had been on the common room had evidently worn off at some point.

Nick waited silently behind the drawn curtains of the four poster bed. This time, he had remembered to put up silencing charms.

He waited until he could hear the soft snoring and shallow breathing of Oliver's three roommates, before silently slipping from the bed to dress and head down the stairs.

The journey back to his own dorm room was a quiet one.

When Nick returned to his own common room, it was deserted entirely except for a single student seated in front of the fire, reading what looked to be a book written in Russian, or maybe Czech.

"How was it?" Eddie asked.

Nick shrugged, "The party was alright, I didn't dance or anything. Mostly just drank."

"And after the party?" Eddie probed. It was all too clear he'd want a better explanation. Nick hadn't returned until fairly early in the morning, after all.

Did he know something?

Nick panicked, but he said nothing.

"Look, Marcus is oblivious to anyone outside of himself and I am _fairly _certain Hugo thinks that other sexual orientations are about as real as the Deathly Hollows or the Easter Bunny. But y'know what? Anyone with two eyes and half a brain can tell you aren't even a little bit straight, and believe me, there are a lot of Gryffindors who swing both ways."

"What do you think?" Nick asked. He wasn't sure if he was asking what Eddie thought of him, or what he just generally thought about anyone who was gay. From the way Nick said the words, he felt like he was daring Eddie to say exactly what was on his mind. He could say what he wanted. It didn't matter.

"I think it's disgusting," Eddie said honestly. He seemed to want to say something else, but he didn't, simply turned back to his book instead.

"What are you hoping to find?" NIck asked, motioning towards the Russian book.

"A cure," Eddie said pointedly.

"...For?" Nick asked, hopelessly lost. He didn't like at all where this was going.

Eddie's grip tightened around the book. "Elvish," he answered tersely. His eyes dared Nick to reject the idea in some way.

"Why would you want to cure someone of being an elf?" Nick asked in astonishment.

Eddie remained tight lipped, his eyes scanning the pages of the book as if he was reading, but Nick could see that Eddie's thoughts were far off somewhere else.

"They're nothing _wrong _with being an elf, or even being part elf," Nick insisted quietly, "If it's yourself you're trying to change, you should have more pride in yourself, and if it's someone else, you need to accept them for who they are. You should never have to ask them to change for you."

"Why?" Eddie asked bitterly, "Because that's what you want people to do for _you_?" He threw Nick a disgusted look. "See here, rubbing a friend off every once and awhile is one thing, but fucking them? Actually deluding yourself into thinking you love them? That's not natural. That's just bloody sick," Eddie spat.

If Nick had been thinking clearly, and not somewhat hungover, tired, confused, vulnerable, and deeply wounded by Eddie's reaction, Nick probably would have just walked away. Maybe he'd swear a little, but that would have been it.

If Nick hadn't been feeling all of those things, he would definitely not use an obscure curse he'd read about once in the parseltongue library that turned Eddie into an armchair.

But of course, Nick _was _feeling all of those things.

Had he thought about it at all, he probably would have released the curse sooner than in the late evening the next day, after everyone had gone to bed. He probably wouldn't have done what he had under normal circumstances, but he did, and now Eddie both feared and hated Nick. To top it off, Eddie knew Nick was a parselmouth, and gay to boot.

Which was why Nick moved his trunk to the Slytherin's library and took a pillow and blanket down to Andrus's chambers to sleep at night.

Officially, Nick was still a Ravenclaw, but he didn't eat at the Ravenclaw table at meals, he hardly talked to any Ravenclaws besides Luna, and he never so much as put a toe into the Ravenclaw common room.

Life wasn't unbearable, per se, living out of the library, but it wasn't the same as having a common room and doormats to talk to and play board games with. Life wasn't unbearable, but it sure wasn't happy.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Exams are on June first, right?" Nick wondered aloud. "And we leave Hogwarts June nineteenth. It's already May twenty-third, so I won't even be living out of the library that long. Anyways, I can study for exams here," he pointed out.

Hermione didn't look the least bit impressed.

In fact, she looked like she was all of two seconds away from marching off to Professor Flitwick's classroom to have a word, but she didn't. Clearly, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were rubbing off on her. There was no other reason the by-the-book, bushy haired girl would allow a fellow student to move into a library. That, or deep down, Hermione was really just jealous of Nick. She would probably do the very same, if she could get away with it.

"Have you at _least _signed up for next year's classes?" Hermione asked.

Both Harry and Ron looked away guiltily.

Luna, however, jumped right in to save the day, rattling off her classes one by one. When Hermione looked like she was about to turn on the boys again, Luna made an obscure comment on the approaching exams. Next years classes were quickly forgotten as Hermione forced an intense study session on everyone. The evening ended with very relaxed practice of parseltongue by Luna and Hermione, Harry practiced a wide variety of parselmagic and Ron taught Nick how to play wizard chess.

"So, have you filled out your class registration?" Ron asked in a hush voice, lest Hermione hear.

Nick nodded, "I'm taking the usual core classes, but Professor Snape and Professor Mcgonagall insisted that I take advanced Potion and Transfiguration classes. Which is a bit annoying because it has really screwed up my preferred schedule"

"Ouch, mate, next year is really going to suck for you."

"That definitely makes me feel better," Nick huffed sarcastically.

"Reckon you'll do alright with all those classes?" Ron asked as he motioned casually for his Bishop to take Nick's Queen.

Nick bit his tongue to keep from swearing. His chess pieces all made rather rude gestures at Ron on Nick's behalf, which made things a little better. "Have you looked at the class registration?" Nick asked.

"Not really, I know I want to take Divination and Muggle studies, though. They both seem easy enough. Maybe Care of Magical creatures if I can't get into Muggle studies."

"You should be alright then," Nick said absently, more focused on getting his King out of danger. He moved a pawn in hopes of blocking Ron's Queen.

"Why bother taking the advanced classes anyways?" Ron asked as he motion of for his rook to put Nick's King in Checkmate.

Nick slumped in defeat.

"Another game?" Ron asked.

"Yeah... alright," Nick agreed. With a wave of his wand, Ron reset the board. "If I finish the advanced classes next year then I can challenge the OWLs, maybe even my NEWTs, at the end of the year. Which means I can take a full class of Alchemy in my fifth year, begin apprenticing for a mastery in Potions, and still have a spare to work on my parselmagic or just laze around a bit. Maybe in my sixth or seventh year I could take a Magical Theory course if I wanted, but it'll depend on how much time my potion Mastery takes."

"Bloody _hell _mate, what kind of nerd are you?" Ron asked. His eyebrows were high on his forehead. Unfortunately, the comment caught the attention of one Hermione Granger.

"Are you talking about your classes next year?" Hermione asked, inserting herself into the group and the conversation.

Nick rattled off his course load again ending with not to gental reminder that all Ravenclaws were nerd, thank-you-every-much.

"I didn't even know there _were _advanced classes," Hermione said, clearly trying to not sound _too _jealous.

"I'm not sure there was such a thing before the quidditch game the other night. Professor McGonagall's requested that Fred, George and I all attend private advanced classes. I guess Professor Snape heard about it one way or another, because then _he _wanted me in advanced Potions classes, too. If you study on your own over the summer, I could probably convince McGonagall to add you to the class. Flitwick will probably approach you on his own about an advanced class in Charms. I don't think Snape will let you in the advanced class though, sorry. He doesn't seem to like Gryffindors as a rule."

"Depending on the professor next year, you could probably get into an advanced DADA class, Harry," Hermione said enthusiastically. Harry didn't seem to share her enthusiasm, however. "I bet Neville could get into an advanced Herbology class, too. Ron, you could get into -"

"Relax Hermione, I'd rather not spend every waking moment of my third year on homework. Plus, why would I want to take my OWLs any earlier than I had too?"

Harry looked like he was about to agree with Ron, but Hermione cut him off with an impressive tirade on the importance of education.

"Er … what about you, Luna?" Harry asked awkwardly when Hermione took a breath.

Luna beamed happily, "Professor Kettleburn said he might retire this year, but he said he'd insist I take advanced classes with the new professor. Daddy was very excited when I told him. He's decided we need to go to Peru to find the short-tongue Yizzlesnount Frizzwack."

Harry, Ron and Hermione all rolled their eyes. Nick let out a long sigh, "Luna, Yizzlesnount Frizzwacks are VERY poisonous. why can't you just hike machu picchu and see if you can collect some Silver-Tipped, Collared Inca feathers? They are _great _for potions, you know. It'd brew you a hovering potion that lets you hover at three feet above-ground for hours. And it's great for avoiding walking through swamps and such."

"I'd never heard of Yizzlesnount Frizzwacks before, and I've read _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ at least a dozen times."

"It's not in there," Luna said pointedly.

Hermione cast Luna a rather condescending look, "What book is it in then?"

"It's not in a book. You have to know people," Luna said innocently, so much so that no one seemed to understand that she was, in her own way, insulting Hermione.

"I'm going to go for a walk for a bit, Luna you want to come?" Nick offered before anyone, namely Hermione, clued in.

"Sure," Luna said.

"I suppose we should go soon, too," Hermione said, a bit reluctant to leave the little sanctuary. "You'll want the place quiet if you're going to sleep soon."

Nick waved her off, "I sleep downstairs with Andrus. I wouldn't hear what you were doing if you were burning the place to the ground."

"_Not that that entitles her to even think about something so dastardly," _The portrait of Salazar cut in.

"_I don't think she would," _Luna said in Parseltongue. Her accent was very obvious but she was still easy to understand.

"_You are getting better," _Nick observed as he waved goodbye to the golden trio.

"_Slowly,"_ Luna nodded in agreement.

Nick switched back to English, for Luna's benefit. "The other girls stopped bothering you, I hope?"

Luna smiled slightly, "Yes, They don't bother to talk to me anymore." There was no bitterness in her voice, but Nick could see it in her eyes. Luna was lonely, horribly so. She missed her mother, she missed having friends, she wanted people in her life.

"You could try and be re-sorted," Nick suggested feebly.

Luna laughed outright at his suggestion. It was a strangely hopeless laugh for Luna. "No I can't. Nowhere would be any different. Anyways, I like to read. Daddy said he'd like you to come to Peru with us. Ginny might come too. She has to talk to her mom about it first though."

"Sure, that would be lovely. I'll probably be traveling before then. Maybe owl me where you want to meet in Peru, and when and I can meet you there. I might be in Canada for the first part of summer, so leave _lots _of time for the owl to find me."

"Sure, I can do that," said Luna. As the two passed a statue, Luna pulled on the little apple she was wearing as an earing. It pulled out of the hook and instantly grew back to regular apple size. Luna bit into it as they walked. The corridors were silent except for the patter of their feet and the crunch of Luna eating.

After saying goodbye to Luna at the Ravenclaw door knocker, Nick headed back down towards the dungeons, and Slytherin's library.

Before he made it very far, two familiar faces appeared out of nowhere.

When Nick realized that it was, in fact, the Carrow sisters, he allowed the two to haul him out to the lake for a late night walk.

Curfew was already well into effect, but apparently Professor Snape was on duty tonight, so the Slytherin girls weren't in any serious danger of trouble.

"So, you and the son of He-who-Must-Not-Be-Named are cousins," Flora Carrow said conversationally, one arm looped through Nick's.

The moonlight flickered on the rippling water of the lake. The sound of something large moving lazily beneath the ripples mixed with the hum of the nocturnal creatures in the forest.

"Yes, different branches of the same family," Nick conceded.

"So... I suppose your real name is Nicholas Slytherin or some such rubbish," Hestia Carrow said, a sly look on her face.

"Indeed. My birth name is Nicholas Xavier Cyneric Eadwulf Slytherin, if you must know. Tom's full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle."

"So I suppose you are _both _parselmouths?" Hestia asked.

Nick snorted. "Looking for gossip?"

"Nope, looking for a school," Flora said confidently.

Nick raised an eyebrow at the twins. He silently wished he could raise an eyebrow the same way Tom or Professor Snape did, they seemed to have mastered the art. He hoped the shadows cast by the moon at least made him look a _little _mysterious.

"We were in the restricted section, looking for some books for Flora's apprenticeship this summer when we came across a school in Toronto, Canada. For healers. Only... you have to be a parseltongue to get in," Hestia explained.

"Parselmouth," Nick corrected, "parseltongue is the language. I know of the school, though. I thought about going there, but it is pretty much exclusively for healers."

"But do you think you could you get Hestia in?" Flora asked.

Nick blinked in surprise. "I erm, probably? But you would need to learn at least conversational parseltongue."

"You can _do _that?" the twins asked in tandem, stunned.

"Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood are already getting lessons. You can come too, if you want." Nick shrugged. "There's only a couple weeks left of school, but next year we can come up with a serious plan that gets you on track to apply for school in your fifth year. Are you both going to apply?"

Flora looked a little uneasy.

Hestia answered for her, "Flora and I looked into our family tree, and it looks like our Great-Grandmother was an elf of some kind, but there isn't much more information than that. Flora is going to apply for an 'at-distance learning program' through the Canadian Magics Government while she looks into the whole elf thing."

Nick nodded in understanding. He had done the At-distance Learning Program when he was on the hunt with Alex and his coven.

"You know, you could have asked Tom about this, he's in your house after all," Nick pointed out.

The sisters looked equally offended and uneasy. "We realise he's your cousin..." Flora began delicately. She looked to Hestia for support.

Hestia didn't look any more confident than her sister, but seemed to bolster her nerve before plowing on, "Tom Riddle is … frightening?" Hestia looked to Flora for confirmation.

"No, that's not quite right. He is powerful and clearly only after his own ends but I don't think he would go out of his way to hurt someone."

"If they get in his way through…" Hestia trailed off. The girls nodded together, like they were both remembering the same incident.

"You know Abigail Montague?" Flora asked. Her voice was quieter, and a little tentative.

"Sure, she dated Grant Page for a while. She's nice enough."

"Well she broke up with Grant-"

Flora cut in, "That's a different story though!"

"She was dating Tom Riddle after Grant Page. They were really serious, apparently. She wanted him to meet her parents over the summer serious. Which, in case you don't know much about pureblood tradition, a girl bringing a boy home to meet the parents is _big-_"

"Like, 'wedding soon' big" Flora cut in again.

Hestia nodded in agreement. "Anyways, Riddle dated her right up until Grant found out and threw a huge fit. Grant _apparently _challenged Tom to an official wizards' duel. We didn't go-"

"No one knew where or when it was." Flora looked more relieved than disappointed that she and her sister couldn't go.

"But we heard rumours. It was an official duel between family houses, so the administration had to let it happen and we heard that Riddle practically tortured Grant Page. Now a week later, Riddle dumps Abigail Montague. From the sound of it, he just used her as bait to get Grant Page to challenge him to a duel."

"She meant nothing to him the entire time." Flora's nostrils were flared, she looked disgusted to hear about someone being _used _like that. The Carrow sisters were nothing like school rumours hinted at. They had souls, no denying it. "Abigail Montague was so heartbroken and ashamed when she found out. I heard she is thinking of switching schools for her last year of study."

Nick was shocked at the realization. In equal parts because it was hard to imagine anyone thinking Tom Riddle truly cared about them, and because he didn't realise Tom had a reason to dislike Grant Page.

Tom had a very cold and distant attitude to pretty much the entire world. Having had an insider's peek into Tom's mind, Nick was certain that Tom's coldness towards others went right to the core. There was thus no reason to love or hate anyone.

What reason did Tom have for hating Grant Page? Was it in somehow attached to Nick? And if so, did Tom create an elaborate plan to get some sort of misguided revenge for Nick to defend the family honour?

Above all else, did Tom care about other people, or was he really just a sociopathic megalomaniac on an extreme power trip, destined to bring chaos and destruction to the world?

"That's just one example, too, but there are others," Flora explained with a shrug. "Tom uses people a lot. Sometimes it's mutually beneficial, other times it's not. _You_, on the other hand... you seem to be willing to help others and as a rule don't intentionally destroy people."

Nick shuddered, brushing off the comments about his cousin. "Makes sense, I guess. Speaking of helping, lessons are after dinner on weekdays. After dinner tomorrow we can start if you want. I'm sure Hermione would be willing to share her summer study plan with you if you agree to provide books on pureblood tradition or some such nonsense. She's a bit like a Ravenclaw in that way." Nick nodded thoughtfully to himself.

"After dinner then," Flora said happily.

"We'll bring some old books about etiquette for Hermione," Hestia promised. She paused as if waiting for a request from Nick about what he might like, but Nick was just happy to have this moment, and to have these friends. He was happy to have more parselmouths in the school. He wasn't so alone, now.

Nick said goodbye to the girls, once he walked with them back into the castle, and down to the Slytherin dormitory.

Professor Snape briefly eyed them as he walked past, but he only paused a little, before whisking off down the hall like a bat on the hunt for dinner. Classic.

(break)

Nick thought briefly of calling it a night now and heading to bed, but something drew him up to the owlery.

To Nick's surprise, Faer and Fawks were on the floor, chirping away at one another.

Not wanting to interrupt, Nick tiptoed to the side and took a seat on the floor. A nearby barn owl landed on Nick's knee and indicated that it wanted Nick to straighten it's feather and scratch its head.

Nick obediently pampered the owl as he watched Faer slowly change different parts of his body as demonstration.

Fawks seemed to get the message, because he tried as well. It was an odd sight, to see Dumbledore's phoenix companion changing its form like this. It didn't seem to come too easily to him, either, as some parts looked more difficult than others for Fawkes. Nick thought it was a bit like animagus practice with Fred and George.

Faer turned to his human form and took a seat by Nick's feet to watch Fawkes' progress.

"How's Tom?" Nick asked, playing it casual.

Faer could clearly tell that Nick was probing for information, but he humoured Nick anyways. "He's doing as well as anyone in his situation would do. I have to sing to him most nights, just to get him to sleep, and he has nightmares more often than not. I've tried to get Mao to help him before but Tom seems to dislike him too much for it to work. It doesn't help that his nightmares are always worse after a session with Mao."

"Professor Mao can be a little..." Nick searched for the right word, "_forcefu_l when he's working with someone unfamiliar." He watched as the feathers on Fawkes' head turned into long flowing red hair, more stunning than any of the Weasleys in colour. It was like watching dancing fires when Fawkes shook his head.

Fawks suddenly sneezed, and the hair turned back to feathers.

Faer chirped something encouraging to Fawkes before turning back to Nick.

"He does seem to care about others, he just has a really hard time knowing how to show it. He seems to have found friendship in a Hufflepuff boy, though," Faer said thoughtfully.

"Rolf something-or-other, yeah, I met him," Nick mumbled. "He seemed nice enough."

Faer nodded. "He doesn't get frustrated with Tom when the boy fumbles over his attempts to show he cares."

"You make him sound a bit like a hopeless nerd," Nick laughed. "He's not, though, is he? He can be downright cruel without a second thought. He can be terrifying when he wants to be, even I would admit that."

Faer signed, looking at his feet before looking back at Nick, locking eyes with him. "Tom has been in survival mode for most of his life." He made a pinching motion with his fingers, "Those first really important years? During that time, Tom was constantly fighting to survive. Any instance he had to think of others, to be kind to others, to build community, they were stamped out of him. People like Dumbledore, who keep looking for Tom to show his inner evil don't help either. Tom has this idea that he was simply born deficit of empathy and that will never change."

Fawkes hopped back and forth on his claws and they slowly formed into little human feet. Fawkes gave a surprised, happy squawk. Nick clapped and Faer chipped in congratulations.

"Do you think he can change, then?"

Faer snorted, "The question _is, _can he heal? And I think it would be very hard without a lot of great support. Being the head of the family seems to have helped. Tom's got pride in his family now. Having Rolf helps, since the boy is patient. He's been reminding Tom constantly when he is too cruel, or to forceful, without being patronizing or getting inherently angry. I worry what will happen if Rolf leaves before Tom has a strong support base."

"Do you think going to the Weasleys' will help him?" Nick asked.

He thought of all the lovingly knit jumpers, and all the letters Mrs. Weasley sent to her children every year. The family certainly seemed to full of the warm and fuzzies, but then again Percy, Ron and the twins all seemed to _hate _Tom. Not without reason, of course, but it wouldn't help Tom to live in a place where he wasn't welcome.

Faer seemed to be thinking along the same lines because he shot Nick a rather disbelieving look. No, Faer was almost certain that living with the Weasleys wouldn't help anything.

"Would it help if I reached out more? Tried to introduce him to more of the family before christmas?"

Faer laughed, "Who in your family are you thinking would help such an angry, fragile young lad?" he asked, incredulous.

Nick huffed indignantly, but when he ran through his mind a list of head of other houses, he couldn't really think of any great mentors. There were few options at their disposal.

Faer waved Nick off, "Leave him to Rolf for now, just remain available. Stay interested in his life, remind him when he is being cruel and praise him when he is thoughtful even if it is something little like remembering you don't like a certain drink."

Fawkes flapped his wings slowly in the air, causing a warm breeze to waft past Nick and Faer, rustling their hair. Faer shuffled uncomfortably, but Nick was more than content to bask in the brief opportunity to get warm.

Fawkes was transforming at a greater pace, now. As the others watched, bare arms slowly formed. Giddy with success, Fawkes began shaking his body and hopping back and forth. The warm air swirl lightly, a bit of soft fire twirled around Fawkes as his body grew and his legs lengthened. After a moment of dancing in firefly winds, a very human, very naked Fawkes stood proudly in front of Nick and Faer.

Feathers stuck out of Fawkes' hair, and his ears looked more more like Phoenix feathers than human ears. Even so, it was still a rather good job.

Fawkes chirped excitedly in a strange mixture of bird noises and human intonations,, completely oblivious of his awkward state of undress. Nick tried not to stare uncomfortably. Fawkes may look alarmly good (dare he say _attractive_) as a human, but he was still, undoubtedly, a bird.

Faer seemed more than aware of Nick's awkwardness, but he did nothing to alleviate the discomfort.

"Try saying something in English," Faer encouraged

"Erro!" Fawkes chirped excitedly to Nick.

"Hello, Fawkes." Nick grinned, catching Fawkes' eyes. They looked like warm coals, resting in a slow burning fire. They were calming and welcoming the way a well-stocked fireplace is after a day of playing out in the snow.

"'ye 'ee 'ew 'aim" Fawkes said excitedly. Nick turned to Faer in confusion, what was Fawkes trying to say now?

"A new name you say? True, Fawkes isn't a very good human name, I don't normally bother, but it might be fun to create a human persona for a year to really immerse yourself in the culture." Faer hummed thoughtfully."Ideas, Nick?" he asked.

"Reading phone books and authors' names helps. That's how I got my last name."

Faer chipped a translation to Fawkes, who nodded, still vibrating excitement.

"We can do that tomorrow. I should go check on Tom. And _you_," he pointed a finger at Nick, "should get to bed." Faer's icy hand gripped Nick's shoulder without warning.

(Break)

Nick was forcibly brought down i to Andrus' chambers, with the demand that he go directly to sleep.

Andrus didn't so much as open his eyes when Nick entered, hissing out a soft welcome as he moved so that the boy could curl up with his blanket amidst Andrus's coils.

Faer frosted away again, likely off to check on Tom. Nick was left alone to get some sleep.


End file.
